Parques de Portugal

<p> <em>Pollicipes pollicipes</em> (Gmelin, 1790)</p>

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  • Goose Barnacle

  • Pollicipes pollicipes (Gmelin, 1790)

  • Pollicipedidae

  • The goose barnacle is a marine crustacean formed by a long brown and flexible peduncle, fixed to a hard substrate, that sustains a set of white or cream calcareous plates called capitulum. The body possesses articulated appendices, the cirrus which come out of the capitulum, that capture the food suspended in the sea water. It can measure up to 5 cm in height. During its plankton larval stage, which may be several weeks long, it has different shapes and its size is usually smaller than 0,5mm.

  • Sudoeste Alentejano e Costa Vicentina Nature Park

    Berlengas Nature Reserve

  • Algarve

    Lisboa e Vale do Tejo

  • Fishing is excessive in some regions

  • The goose barnacle lives on the coast, over rocks that are directly exposed to strong hydrodynamics. The goose barnacle is also the most important economic resource of the inter tidal zone of mainland Portugal, and is thoroughly exploited. There are different regulations on the exploitation of this resource along the Portuguese coast, and despite the high socio-economic interest of this resource, this is recent.

  • All year long

  • The goose barnacle feeds mainly on zoo plankton, which it obtains by passively filtering the sea water.

  • There is no estimate for the Portuguese population of this species.