IF IT LOOKS LIKE A RUBBER BALL AND IT FEELS LIKE A RUBBER BALL, IT MUST BE…ALGAE, a version commonly called a sea pearl (Ventricaria ventricosa). Sea pearl algae is an occasional reef denizen found worldwide that stands out because it so often looks like a delicate glass ball. Typically about the size of a golf ball, sea pearls are remarkable for their structure. Each one is a single cell, all by itself. Its round,
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Holdfast (hohld’-fast) In marine biology terms, structures with which sessile organisms’ such as kelp attach themselves to a solid substrate. Sessile (ses’-il, -ahy) Permanently attached by the base, not able to move about. Substrate (suhb’-streyt) A surface that serves as a base for a sessile marine organism. As in, “a larva looks for a substrate on which to settle.” Stipe (stahyp’) The stem of an algae organism, most often used with reference to larger varieties
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ALGAE COMES IN EIGHT GAZILLION DIFFERENT FORMS, from tiny little slimy green stuff to giant kelp, and to most of us it seems obnoxious and a thing to be ignored, if not despised. Except that algae is the foundation of the food chain, a pioneer in the evolution of life, and essential to our existence. Algae uses sunlight to photosynthesize the carbon dioxide and hydrogen in water into the simple sugars that are nutrients for
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