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twelve43atnight · 09-09-2015, 08:12

Hey y'all!!

We just took our boat back to Westport from a long 6 week adventure to NYC and all over the long island sound. When we got there the mooring lines were DISGUSTING! There were a TON of squishy growths attached to the lines. They all exploded my zits when I was scraping them off!

Sorry I didnt get a picture but my hands were all cruddy at the time. Now I'm wondering what those little buggers are. Does anyone know what they're called??

The mooring lines are in the westport area on the long island sound.

Cheers and thanks in advance for any info!

Cory

Sandero · 09-09-2015, 08:48

There is all manner of marine growth in these warm nutrient filled waters... barnacles of course... and mini shrimp... and so forth. It fouls impellers, lines, thru hulls, and mooring rigs... and of course bottoms. Bottom paint seems completely ineffective.

keepondancin · 09-09-2015, 09:14

I was away for several weeks also. The bottom of my hard dinghy had the same type of gelatinous growth on the bottom.golf ball size round things. I am in Rowayton, by Darien. Have never seen it before. Luckily it scraped off very easily. Really strange stuff. This past week there was a big fish die off. Someone said it was because the water was so warm, there was a low oxygen level in the water. But that can't be true, there isn't any global warming. (Or so the denyers are saying). We treat this planet like we have another to go to.

**JPA Cate** · 09-09-2015, 13:31

Some places, people are careful to leave the lines on the dock, not in the water; or the moorings have line poles to drape the lines over.

All sea water supports some life forms, obviously in the area above, what is happening is that the more oxygen deprivation resistance the critters have, the better they cope.

Ann

cabo_sailor · 09-09-2015, 16:54

Kinda sounds like the beginning of a SyFi movie. The ooze that devoured NYC!
As opposed to the ooze that devoured Cleveland !!

Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Delancey · 09-09-2015, 17:36

Sea Squirts aka Tunicates. Gross, and apparently an invasive species in the northeast.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunicate

Orion Jim · 09-09-2015, 17:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delancey

Sea Squirts aka Tunicates. Gross, and apparently an invasive species in the northeast.

Yup. First noticed them about 10 years ago. Yucky but harmless to human flesh. They look disgusting though.

wiekeith · 10-09-2015, 08:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Delancey

Sea Squirts aka Tunicates. Gross, and apparently an invasive species in the northeast.

Yeh, we get them in parts of the UK too. A non-indigenous invasive species that apparently originates from Japan.

They attacked my boat so badly last season that I couldn't get any cooling water through the saildrive leg! The only silver lining to that cloud was that I was able change my seized-open SD20 gate-valve with the boat still in the water. Incidentally, I replaced it with a ball valve.