Barnacles can swim at birth. When they reach adult stage, they attach
themselves to objects in the water and grow a shell.
If you have ever visited a seacoast
where there were rocks and piers you’ve almost certainly seen barnacles, for
the “crush” you saw on the wharf’s pilings and the rocks was made up of
millions of salt water shellfish called barnacles.
When barnacle is first hatched, it
resembles a young water flea and can swim about in the water. But when it reaches adult stage it
can no longer swim, so it attaches itself to any convenient object, such as the
hull of a ship, piling, rock, whale, or even a sting of seaweed.
Once attached, a hard lime-like
shell forms around the barnacles. The barnacle eats by waving its
feathery legs through an opening in the shell to pull tiny sea creatures and
plants into its mouth.
In olden days, sailor of wooden
sailing ships had to periodically pull their ships ashore to scrape off the
masses of barnacles clinging to the hulls, because they reduced the ship’s
speed and made steering difficult.
Today, special paints, prevent growth of barnacles.-Dick Rogers
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