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People who live by the sea often can't resist the temptation of a delicious taste from the reef, which is very sweet and delicious.
This delicacy is barnacles.
In particular, some top-notch gooseneck barnacles can easily cost hundreds or even thousands of yuan a catty, and in some European countries, a catty can be sold for tens of thousands of yuan.
However, it is this rare delicacy of the world, but it is a demonic existence in the ocean, and even whales are tortured by them......
What's going on here?
Why are barnacles so expensive?
Let's start with why barnacles sell so expensive.
The reason why the barnacles we see are so expensive is mainly because they are scarce, but it is not the creature that is scarce, but the barnacles that we artificially get from nature.
The barnacles we eat often come from reefs near the ocean, and the barnacles on these reefs can only be seen after the tide is low.
Barnacles are usually clinging to the reef, making it difficult for staff to pick barnacles.
And because the shell of barnacles is a calcium carbonate structure, it is very hard, and some even have sharp edges, which can easily be injured during the picking process.
The top-notch gooseneck barnacles grow on the steep cliff-like reefs, and the staff picking them can cost their lives if they are not careful.
Based on this, the value of gooseneck barnacles is naturally not cheap.
A whale's nightmare
Barnacles are delicious, but they are a nightmare for whales in the ocean, especially the slower humpback whales and blue whales.
We often see videos of whales jumping out of the sea and then slamming into the sea, in large part because they want to use the force of the shot into the sea to shake off the barnacles on their bodies.
Some clever whales even thought of finding a way for human ships to rub the boats in an attempt to rub off these barnacles......
Barnacles, like clams, are small arthropods that are soft and need to be protected by their shells, which are made by their own secretions.
Barnacles go through three stages in their life, namely nauplii, glandular larvae, and adults, where they begin to look for parasitic targets.
Since they have no legs and cannot swim quickly in the ocean, they can only look for parasites such as sea creatures that do not move or move slowly.
Humpback whales and blue whales are among the most ideal parasitic sea creatures because they swim very slowly and are large enough.
After falling on the whale, the barnacle will secrete a large amount of mucus to firmly fix its body to the whale, this mucus is a special biological glue, although it will not hurt the whale's skin, but it is extremely difficult to clean up, and the barnacle is generally stained for a lifetime.
They make their home on whales and build their calcium carbonate shells.
As the number of barnacles increases, on the one hand, the whale's weight will be overwhelmed by the weight of these calcium carbonates.
On the other hand, some barnacles can parasitize the soft parts of whales, even their private parts, which can make them itchy and uncomfortable.
"Parasitic Demons"
In addition to whales, sea turtles are also one of the biggest victims of barnacle parasitism.
They can parasitize on the shells of sea turtles in large numbers, and some turtles can even double in size due to barnacle parasitism.
Sea turtles are not as powerful as whales for barnacle parasitism, and as the number of barnacle parasitism increases, their bodies will be crushed and eventually crushed to death in the sea.
We humans are also victims of barnacle parasitism.
Barnacles will parasitize a large number of ships on the bottom of the ship, and the ships parasitized by barnacles will increase the consumption of fuel due to the increase of load, and at the same time, it will also affect the streamlined structure of the bottom of the ship, increase the forward resistance, and even lead to the difficulty of the ship to turn, bringing great safety hazards to the navigation process.
In the past, in order to clean up the barnacles at the bottom of the naval warships, the United States even had to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in additional military spending every year, and it was not until the appearance of anti-barnacle paint that the problem of barnacle parasitism was avoided to a large extent.
Write at the end
Of course, barnacles do bad things, but they also do some good things for humanity.
In addition to being served on the table, barnacles also play a significant role in the field of medicine.
Inspired by the bio-glue secreted by barnacles, American scientists have successfully developed a surgical glue that can be used on surgical glue, which can play a good role in emergency hemostasis without worrying about secondary damage to patients......
From the perspective of mainland Chinese medicine, barnacle meat and barnacle shell are also excellent Chinese medicinal materials, which can be used to treat people's diseases.
It can only be said that the creation of nature cannot be viewed purely from one point of view, here it may be a demon, and there it may become an angel.