Inspired To Dive
  • Home
  • About
  • Gallery
  • Photo Blog
  • Store
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Nudiblog
  • Sign Up

New Zealand's Sea is Transformed into a Salp Soup

25/11/2015

4 Comments

 
Salps are translucent barrel-shaped animals that may live singly or form colonies metres long. They move through the ocean filtering plankton by pumping water through their gelatinous bodies.

One fine spring day in November in northern New Zealand I descended into a salp soup at the Poor Knights Islands. Salp populations had exploded with the abundance of plant plankton food. This is what I found.

Video doesn't automatically play in HD quality - click through to Vimeo for best quality viewing.
The innocent salps face hostility. Many scuba divers don't appreciate the reduced visibility that comes with the phytoplankton bloom and consequent salp occupation. They're slimy to look at and the touch of a salp brushing bare skin will send a shiver down your spine.

The alien invasion doesn't last long and as quickly as they appeared the salps can be swept away by ocean forces. Before you know it you're missing those crazy plankton hoovering vacuum cleaners and their jaunty jet-propelled motion. Careful... you might develop an appetite for the wonders of our weird wild ocean.
Scuba diver surrounded by salp in New Zealand
Underwater photographer Alison Perkins in New Zealand
4 Comments
Gill Mapstone
18/8/2016 07:59:09 pm

A lovely film Alison, which I first saw at the 5th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium held in Barcelona earlier this (N Hemisphere) summer and shown by Larry Madin. It really brings home how dense salp blooms can get, and how as a group they must affect the pelagic ecosystem when they bloom.

Reply
Alison Perkins link
27/8/2016 10:29:28 am

You were at the Jellyfish Symposium Gill - that's so cool! We're about to slip into September which means we're rapidly heading towards the time of year here in NZ when we get the plankton bloom followed by the salps. Looking forward to it!

Reply
Gabriel Marsh link
30/12/2020 03:33:33 am

Niice post

Reply
Telkom University link
24/12/2023 04:48:25 am

What environmental factors have contributed to the transformation of New Zealand's sea into a salp soup? Greeting : <a href="https://sas.telkomuniversity.ac.id/en/">Telkom University</a>

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Written by
    Alison Perkins

    I'm an underwater photographer who is nuts about scuba diving and the world below water.

    New Zealand underwater photographer Alison Perkins

    Sign Up

    Do you like what you've seen so far? Sign up to learn more.

    Archives

    January 2020
    July 2017
    February 2017
    August 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All
    Behaviour
    Cave Diving
    Discoveries
    Fish
    Invertebrates
    Nudibranchs
    Photography Tips
    Sharks

    RSS Feed

Instagram