Giant Acorn Barnacle or Giant Barnacle
Balanus nublilis

This barnacle is easily identified because of its large size. It is a whitish color and can grown up to 3 inches wide in diameter and almost 5 inches high. If you look inside of the barnacle near its beak-like central plates, you can see bright red, yellow or purple tissue. This barnacle has very long cirri (feeding appendages) that sweep out and filter food. The cirri can reach out to be 2 inches or more. The Giant Barnacle is normally subtidal, but can be found in the low intertidal on the exposed coast. I found this barnacle in the field at Fox Island on April 6, 2007 and on the Centennial boat at Friday Harbor on May 4, 2007. The Centennial had brought up the barnacles with a dredge.


























In this picture you can see the bright red flesh inside of it's central plates.



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This webpage is part of the UWT Marine Ecology 2007 Class Project