Plankton Chronicles

By-the-Wind Sailor

One delight of walking the shore is seeing what treasures have washed up with the tide. Yesterday morning, we spotted several blue-gray colored oval shapes in the wrack. At first glance, I thought that a trove of rare blue beach glass was underfoot. On closer examination, I realized the sapphire blue-rimmed discs had translucent triangular sailsContinue reading “By-the-Wind Sailor”

Salps

The sea salps are back! No, that’s not a typo. Salps are small, shiny, prismatic and easy to overlook on a casual beach stroll. Referred to by some scientists as “vacuum cleaners of the ocean”, they appeared on Zuma Beach this week. We first noticed them last winter. After a few weeks, they disappeared. Shaped as orbs orContinue reading “Salps”