Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacle

At a glance

Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacle (Lepas anatifera) is a barnacle present across the CatchRules coverage area but without species-specific bag, size, or season rules tracked in our regulatory dataset.

Confirmed by 763 research-grade iNaturalist observations, with California, British Columbia, and Oregon the top jurisdictions by observation count.

Notable details

• It spends its entire adult life attached to floating ocean debris like driftwood and buoys.
• It can drift thousands of miles across open ocean on floating rafts of material.
• It feeds by sweeping zooplankton from the water using feathery appendages called cirri.
• Its brilliant white shell plates contrast with an orange-tinged fleshy stalk called a peduncle.
• It is one of the most cosmopolitan barnacles, found in all major ocean basins.

Where Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacle are seen

• California181 iNat obs
• British Columbia171 iNat obs
• Oregon158 iNat obs
• Washington102 iNat obs
• Texas40 iNat obs
• Florida21 iNat obs

Background

Lepas anatifera, commonly known as the pelagic gooseneck barnacle or smooth gooseneck barnacle, is a species of barnacle in the family Lepadidae. These barnacles are found, often in large numbers, attached by their flexible stalks to floating timber, the hulls of ships, piers, pilings, seaweed and various sorts of flotsam.

Background excerpt adapted from Wikipedia's Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacle article (CC BY-SA). Visit Wikipedia for the full entry.

Other barnacles on CatchRules

• Pacific Acorn BarnacleBalanus glandula
• Northern Acorn BarnacleSemibalanus balanoides