First record of the buoy barnacle Dosima fascicularis

Dosima fascicularis (Ellis & Solander, 1786) is a stalked barnacle which capitulum bears five large plates. It is the unique barnacle that constructs its own float, a foamy mass described as similar to polystyrene, using floating items as feathers, tar balls and plastic particles as attachment surfaces (Darwin 1851; Minchin 1996; Ryan and Branch 2012). The species is widespread in temperate and subtropical ocean waters, reaching in the NE Atlantic the British Islands and Baltic Sea (Darwin 1851) but its presence in European coast is unusual (O’ Riodan 1967; Cotton et al. 2006). A long term study on the macroinfauna community was carried out on sandy beaches situated along the 1659 km of the Galician coast (NW Spain; NE Atlantic Ocean) after the Prestige oil spill from autumn 2002 to winter 2003 (De la Huz et al. 2005; Junoy et al. 2005). Eighteen sandy beaches were sampled yearly during four consecutive years (2004–2007) (Figure 1). Three of them (Corrubedo, Frouxeira and Altar beaches) were also sampled monthly from September 2005 to August 2007 (Bernardo-Madrid et al. 2013), totalizing 138 shore visits. Additional surveys were realized along the drift line of the La Lanzada Beach, with occasion of two coastal field courses, at spring tides from 2003 to 2013. At these visits, several colonies of the goose barnacle Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1758 were observed but no one of the buoy barnacle D. fascicularis. Buoy barnacles were observed washed ashore on 18 August 2004 at Louro Beach (A Coruña province, 42°43′ N, 9°03′ W). A total of 39 single individuals, but no one colony (two or more specimens attached together) were Abstract: The presence of the buoy barnacle Dosima fascicularis is first documented for Spanish waters. More than the half of the specimens collected was attached to tar pellets from the Prestige oil spill. EU-US Marine Biodiversity Research Group, Franklin Institute and Departamento de Ciencias de la Vida, AP 20. Campus Universitario, Universidad de Alcalá, 28805 Alcalá de Henares, Spain. * Corresponding author. E-mail: juan.junoy@uah.es Juan Junoy * and Jorge Junoy First record of the buoy barnacle Dosima fascicularis (Ellis & Solander, 1786) (Crustacea, Cirripedia) from the Galician beaches (NW Spain) after the Prestige oil spill


Dosima fascicularis
is a stalked barnacle which capitulum bears five large plates.It is the unique barnacle that constructs its own float, a foamy mass described as similar to polystyrene, using floating items as feathers, tar balls and plastic particles as attachment surfaces (Darwin 1851;Minchin 1996;Ryan and Branch 2012).The species is widespread in temperate and subtropical ocean waters, reaching in the NE Atlantic the British Islands and Baltic Sea (Darwin 1851) but its presence in European coast is unusual (O' Riodan 1967; Cotton et al. 2006).
A long term study on the macroinfauna community was carried out on sandy beaches situated along the 1659 km of the Galician coast (NW Spain; NE Atlantic Ocean) after the Prestige oil spill from autumn 2002 to winter 2003 (De la Huz et al. 2005;Junoy et al. 2005).Eighteen sandy beaches were sampled yearly during four consecutive years (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007) (Figure 1).Three of them (Corrubedo, Frouxeira and Altar beaches) were also sampled monthly from September 2005 to August 2007 (Bernardo- Madrid et al. 2013), totalizing 138 shore visits.Additional surveys were realized along the drift line of the La Lanzada Beach, with occasion of two coastal field courses, at spring tides from 2003 to 2013.At these visits, several colonies of the goose barnacle Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1758 were observed but no one of the buoy barnacle D. fascicularis.
Buoy barnacles were observed washed ashore on 18 August 2004 at Louro Beach (A Coruña province, 42°43′ N, 9°03′ W).A total of 39 single individuals, but no one colony (two or more specimens attached together) were First record of the buoy barnacle Dosima fascicularis (Ellis & Solander, 1786) (Crustacea, Cirripedia) from the Galician beaches (NW Spain) after the Prestige oil spill collected along the 1470 m of the beach longitude.The floats of 53.8% of the specimens were attached to tar balls, presumably from the Prestige oil spill; other attachment surfaces were Velella tests (15.3%),Sargassum bladders (7.6%) and feathers (2.5%).20.8% of buoy barnacles lacked an obvious attachment object (Figure 2).
The average capitulum length of the collected specimens was 17.7 mm (range 13-22 mm).The maximum size recorded for the species was 37 mm in European waters (Minchin 1996) and 49 mm in South Africa (Ryan and Branch 2012).
Dosima fascicularis stranding on the Galician beaches is very rare; it has only been observed in just one occasion of the 160 shore visits, being an unknown species for local sailors.There was no noticeable pattern for cirripede stranding, although they appeared in Europe in summer, usually after westerly or south strong winds (Minchin 1996;Cotton et al. 2006).This is the first record of D. fascicularis from Spanish waters providing further evidence of the use of tar balls as attachment surface for this cirripede.Minchin (1996) also found that tar was the most frequent object of attachment.This fact suggests that the abundance of the species could be increased after the spills, providing numerous floating surfaces for attachment.Whitehead et al. (2011) also conclude that the increasing abundance of plastic (or other available substrata) is drastically increasing the opportunities for the goose barnacles to colonize and it greatly influences their abundance and distribution.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Map of beaches sampled after the Prestige oil spill in Galicia, NW Spain, NE Atlantic.Louro Beach where D. fascicularis was collected is highlighted.