I was out swimming this week and noticed it was time to clean Smart Move's bottom (the part of the hull that is underwater) again. It is really amazing all of the sea creatures and plants that will take up residence on the bottom of a boat. Along with the usual, crabs and algae, we once again had barnacles - though not nearly as many as when we left St. Lucia.
At dinner later that night, someone asked me what kind of barnacles they were - if they were Gooseneck barnacles. Well I had no idea, so I decided (along with the suggestion from Jan on s/v Hanna) that Barnacles would be a good topic for Fun Facts Friday!
CONTENT WARNING: THERE ARE SOME 'R' RATED FACTS IN HERE!
There are two types of barnacles: Acorn and Gooseneck. Ours, or I should say, the ones I just scraped to their death were Acorn barnacles. It turns out the reason our friend was asking if they were Gooseneck is that Gooseneck's are considered a delicacy in Portugal and Spain.
Louis Agassiz, a Swiss naturalist, described "The barnacle is a shrimp-like animal standing on its head in a limestone house and kicking food into its mouth with its feet." Others consider the barnacle as an upside down crab.
Barnacles are hard-shelled, hardy animals that permanently attach themselves to hard surfaces. Their shells are made up of 6 plates of limestone. There are two additional plates on the inside of the shell that are movable for opening up the outer shell. They are filter feeders who feed on zooplankton that they strain out of the water. They have feathery leg-like appendages called cirri to pull food into their mouths
Barnacles can live for 5 to 10 years.
On average barnacles grow to a diameter 15 mm or roughly ½". Some species, like the Giant Rock barnacle in Austrailia, can get as big as seven centimeters or 2-3/4". This information will come in handy in a later fact ...
There are over 1,000 species of barnacles.
Charles Darwin spent ten studying barnacles.
One square inch of barnacle cement (the substance they use to stick to stuff), 3/10,000" thick will support 7,000 pounds of weight.
The estimates of fuel waste due to the drag caused by barnacles on commercial ships runs between two and seven billion dollars per year, with speeds reduced by as much as thirty percent.
CONTENT WARNING!!!
Relative to their body size, the barnacle has the largest penis of any animal. Barnacles are hermaphroditic, which means they have both male and female reproductive organs. Because they are permanently stuck in one place, finding a mate can be very hard. Thus, they have developed a penis that is eight times longer than their entire body! Imagine a barnacle that is six inches in diameter ... well you can do the math!