Swimming with salps
A year ago, I couldn’t have told you what a salp was. This morning I was surrounded by chains of them, little jelly beans of the sea floating by, linked into streamers.
According to Wikipedia:
‘A salp or salpa is a barrel-shaped, planktic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thereby pumping water through its gelatinous body, one of the most efficient examples of jet propulsion in the animal kingdom.’
A solo salp looks like a googly eye, a small clear body with a black dot inside (its digestive system, I’ve learned). While swimming, my finger tips brushed against hundreds of them this morning. They passed me by underwater like tiny asteroids.
Although they are gelatinous, they are not jellyfish. Not only are they harmless to me, they play a positive role in the ocean by removing carbon from the sea surface (they eat phytoplankton and their waste drops it to the ocean floor). In warm water, they cluster about the coastlines, a part of summer. That means Moon jellyfish won’t be far away.
Wikipedia pic. Next time I’ll take my camera!
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This blog (or newsletter, whatever we’re calling it in the 2020s) isn’t about COVID but everything is related now, isn’t it? Omicron is knocking loudly at everyone’s door and it’s so easy to slip into constant checking of the news and then social media for people’s reactions to the news, being brought down by horrible comments and arguments. I’m actively trying not to do that this year and one way to keep calm and keep a routine is to get into the water. I know people who don’t do it think it’s weird to enjoy the cold but it is so soothing! Immersing myself in nature, focussing on the moment, being away from the intensity for a bit. I cannot take my phone into the sea.
In January 2021, I wrote:
I’ve been thinking about how the sea is constant and comforting during this pandemic. It’s always there and the tides roll in and out each day regardless of human dramas and case numbers. Even in level 4 lockdown I was still walking Bella each day down by the beach, soaking in the alone time and open space, the rhythms of nature, the fresh salt air, after feeling hemmed in by the house. If anything good comes out of the pandemic it will be people slowing down, buying less, appreciating nature more.
Ahem. I wouldn’t say I’m buying much less (I tend to comfort shop online when levels go up, not spending a lot of $$ but things like wool, Ethique soaps, books about the sea, red wine…). I probably haven’t slowed down much either, but the gratitude sure is a constant now!