Tiny strands of pulsating jelly...

in the gulf. Someone enlighten me please! No larger than a sweet pea blobs of clear jelly(sometimes in long strands) with some kind of tiny brown egg or larvae inside. In the water it just looks like a line of black dots...out of the water...it throbs. I couldn't find anything on the internet and it's driving me crazy!

Ewwwww. Sounds icky!

Give these folks a call.

Coastal & Marine Laboratory

Make sure to mention you're a teacher. They used to come to schools and do presentations too. ;-)

I emailed a biologist I know at Fish & Wildlife about these. Fish eggs, was the response.
I managed to get two of them into the palm of my hand - they are fish-shaped, and the "egg" is about where the eye ought to be.
I've seen these every June here for years, and I always thought they were probably fish eggs, but I never inquired before. I don't recall seeing them in as large amounts as this year. They gave me the willies bumping up against me yesterday when I was swimming.

Hey not dead yet, just jumped into the thread to look at that hilarious avatar- thanx for posting it

I emailed a biologist I know at Fish & Wildlife about these. Fish eggs, was the response.
I managed to get two of them into the palm of my hand - they are fish-shaped, and the "egg" is about where the eye ought to be.
I've seen these every June here for years, and I always thought they were probably fish eggs, but I never inquired before. I don't recall seeing them in as large amounts as this year. They gave me the willies bumping up against me yesterday when I was swimming.

i was hoping it was fish and not jelly...thanks!

Yes, we have been seeing these every day, too. And, interestingly, it seems that they look bigger every day. I, too, am curious about what these are.

What kind of fish?

Dunno.
Lots of fish spawn this time of year.
Close in like this though, I am thinking probably what we refer to as "bait fish."
Yesterday I didn't see any more of the "pulsating beads on a string" - either they got moved away in the rough surf, or they morphed into the schools of tiny little fishes that I did see.
Wish I knew more. There is a lot to know!

I'm wondering- is this the same thing I was seeing in every inch of the water? I got up close and they look like brown or black clear-ish little spikes with wings/antenna things. When they are out of the water the wing things disappear and they just look like little spikes all over the beach. There was so many I got out of the water because I just knew one/many would make it in my suit

I was out today and saw both things. The wingy things are some kind of copepod, rotifer, or other large plankton I think. Possibly this, or similar, which is a very small swimming snail:

I know for a fact it had a conical shell because I managed to impale one in my finger after I got out of the water.



I am pretty sure the pulsating jelly is NOT fish eggs because eggs don't need a propulsion system. I think it may be pieces of a salp. Salps are weird because they can come singly or in pretty colonies. They are related to tunicates.

Here's a bunch together but I was seeing them singly. Do a Google image search for "salp" and I think you will be convinced.

I will do more research and get back to y'all. Both are quite harmless by the way, although I did end up with the plankton in my hair and swimsuit.

On another note I was privileged to see several dolphins very close to the beach at Topsail Hill State Park today and I chased some small squid and saw pompano and ladyfish while snorkeling. There were tons of small ghost crabs on the beach and even a little skink among the sea oats at the foot of the dune. I picked up A LOT of trash, mostly plastic, in the morning and scored a cool pair of Oakley sunglasses.

Interesting; those aren't what I saw though...

Interesting; those aren't what I saw though...

That was the closest picture I could find, definitely not spot-on but I think that's what it was. I swam around in them for about 40 minutes. My next best educated guess is some sort of larva.

Gidzilla, those are some very interesting things! It sounds like you had a great time in the water.
However, they are not what I saw either. Yesterday I had a swim in Seagrove, and saw nothing like any of these things. I'll look again today - if they come back I'll try to get some in a bucket and try a picture.

Gidzilla, those are some very interesting things! It sounds like you had a great time in the water.
However, they are not what I saw either. Yesterday I had a swim in Seagrove, and saw nothing like any of these things. I'll look again today - if they come back I'll try to get some in a bucket and try a picture.

The "wingies" or the "jelly"? (very scientific terms )

I saw the jelly in the morning EVERYWHERE along the beach in the park but the wingies didn't show up until after 1pm when the wind picked up.

I'm sticking with salps for the jelly, definitely open for input on the wingies.

Gidzilla, those are some very interesting things! It sounds like you had a great time in the water.
However, they are not what I saw either. Yesterday I had a swim in Seagrove, and saw nothing like any of these things. I'll look again today - if they come back I'll try to get some in a bucket and try a picture.

I saw them at Grayton yesterday and have never seen them before and there were tons of them swimming around...very curious.

Ok, so I googled Salp- and that is definitely not what I saw. I was in Dune Allen. There literally wasn't an inch of water without one/many if these things. And they were tiny. I'm now throughly intrigued and will try and do some research myself...

We should start a new sub-forum or a social group entitled: "ID That Slimy Thing from the Gulf Please";-)

I totally agree. I actually came here looking because this stuff is usually identified so quickly on this board!