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Thursday 3 March 2016

What in the world is salp?

Over the past week there has been lots of discussion about the funny looking blobs found at out local beaches. There was a lot of debate about what they could be. This led us to the conclusion that we needed to do some research. Luckily for us there was an article in the newspaper this week which we read in our reading groups. This led to more of our own research and the following reports. 


Salp
by Chester,Hayley, Blake,Caitlyn, Alex B, Sam Sh,Thomas Jackson

There has been a new sea animal that has been in Wellington beaches for the last month. People have thought it is sea lice, fish eggs, baby jellyfish and plankton. Well the the name is salp.
 
Salp can come in chains or single and can be found at Karaka Bay,Worser Bay  and Scorching Bay,Eastbourne and all the other local beaches.
Salp is completely harmless so you can still swim in Wellington  
beaches.


Salp is a filter feeder that feeds on plant plankton. Salp swim by jetting out water and is related to fish. It's also very common in Antarctica and is the most efficient in the animal kingdom. Its scientific name is Salpidae.The average size for a salp is a 2 to 7 mm blob.
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Salp 
By Oto Betty Meg Emma R Louise Sophia Hugo M Emma M
Image result for salp
Have you spotted the small jelly like creatures at the beach?

Some people call them jelly fish and others call them sea lice. But they are really just salp and are completely harmless. Salp  are a blobby animal with a black dot in the middle. The ones in Wellington are the size of a fingernail and are a colony of animals distantly related to fish.They slowly move through the water by forming a chain then sucking in water through one end then blowing it out the other end; this is how they move and filter feed.Salp can be found all over the globe and can be as big as four inches long! You often find salp close to floating seaweed because they feed on plant planton. Salp is common around Antarctica. Salp were first discovered in 1982.
  
       

1 comment:

  1. Hello, thank you for sharing this information. I looked at this with our students in Tautoru today. We are going to look for Salp when we go down to Worser Bay Beach this week. I had no idea what that stuff was. Thanks for sharing, Nicola

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