Photos by Peter Southwood	The salp with the black ruff Centrolophus niger Salps are Turnicates, a group to which belong the ascidiacea, or sea squirts, like the common red-bait. Salps, class Thaliacea, are quite different in that they are planktonic and colonial. Guido is thus not holding a single individual, but instead a number of animals stuck together: each barrel with a dark centre is an animal. This salp is rather large, and probably was very long (a few meters!) before being broken up in shallow water. Inside the salp was a curiousity: the juvenile of a black ruff. The young of this fish, which can grow to 120 cm and is normally found at depths of 300 to over 400 m, are often associated with pelagic medusae and salps. The species ranges world-wide in temperate waters, including Australia, New Zealand, South America, but also North Atlantic and Mediterranean. It was inside one of the barrels, probably finding it a very convenient and safe hiding spot from pelagic predators.
References: Smiths' Sea Fishes, MM Smith and PC Heemstra, 1986. The living shores of Southern Africa, M Branch and G Branch, 1981. Sea Life, G Waller, editor, 1996.
Previous	News Index	Next