Handling the Foul and the Loathsome

HANDLING THE FOUL AND THE LOATHSOME  

August/September, 2011 issue 
The  bizarre object we were now staring at in the water was a cluster of   Bryozoan, and it floated, half submerged, held in place by a sunken  branch to  which it appeared tethered. It was a something my fellow  hikers had never seen  before, and the “thing” fascinated them. I had  encountered these strange objects  before in slow moving bodies of  water, interestingly, here at Depot Lakes  Conservation Area more than  anywhere else.
  
 “Is it a plant, or is it an animal?” they wanted to know. 
  
 Bryozoan  are actually animals, although millions of these microscopic  aquatic  organisms may have been involved in the baseball sized gelatinous mass   that nodded in the water before us as if acknowledging our presence. It  was only  one of numerous features we found that day during our nine  kilometre walk in  this conservation area, just northwest of the village  of Verona. At 3,000 acres,  Depot Lakes Conservation Area is the  largest of the some 30 conservation areas  owned by Quinte Conservation.  Its three lakes – Second, Third and Fourth Depot  Lakes, make up the  headwaters of the Napanee River. The Depot Lakes are part of  a chain of  five Depot Lakes in the area, but those within the conservation area   itself are of particular importance as they serve as reservoirs, its two  dams  holding back volumes of water, and releasing it as needed to  supply water  downstream during periods of low flow. 
  
 It  was the size of a basketball, round and translucent, somewhat textured,   but so slimy as to defy touching. Finally, it was I who volunteered to  close my  eyes and gently lift the object from the water for a closer  look. As a dairy  farmer from way back, my hands had already experienced  many questionable  textures, and had probed numerous dark recesses  where most hands seldom venture.  The gelatinous object I now held in my  hand was attached to a decaying piece of  vegetation and trembled  noticeably as I rotated it for some clue as to what it  might be.  The  sensation was not unlike holding a quivering ball of Jell-O, the  only  difference being, that it was decidedly sticky and certainly, not in the   least bit appetizing.
  
 The  Bryozoans that turn up at this time of the year are mostly the soft and   gelatinous variety, but they do occur as tufted leaf-like fronds or  even hard  calcified skeletons, not unlike coral. Almost all Bryozoans  are colonial,  composed of anywhere from a few to millions of  individuals. The one I held in my  hand likely contained millions of  individuals, all amassed to form the globulus  gel I pulled out of the  water. Although an animal they don’t really move around,  although some  species do to a certain degree. 
  
 How  do they reproduce? Bryozoans are able to propagate both sexually and   asexually, the latter occurring by budding off new zooids (individual   functioning units) as the colony grows. If a piece of the colony breaks  off,  this piece can continue to grow and form a new colony. Most are  hermaphroditic -  that is, individuals possessing both ovaries and  testes. Some shed both eggs and  sperm into the water where they fuse,  but the majority brood their eggs in tiny  chambers, capturing  free-swimming sperm with their tentacles to fertilize the  eggs. The  eggs divide, develop into free-swimming larvae, escape from the brood   chamber, and swim away to settle on an object somewhere to metamorphose  into a  new zooid, thus starting a new colony. Of course, we can’t see  this unless we  were to somehow view the whole process under a  microscope. All we get to see is  the mass of millions that have united  to form something we can observe floating  in the water - or hold in our  hand, for those who dare to experience the  sensation. 
  
 At  first glance, Bryozoans superficially appear to have more in common  with  coral, but Bryozoans and corals belong to quite different phyla  and are  unrelated. A glob that we may find is actually a colony of  zooids, not polyps as  in corals. And each of these zooids has whorls of  delicate feeding tentacles  gently swaying in the water catching food.  Bryozoans feed on minute organisms,  including diatoms and other  unicellular algae. In turn, they are fed upon by  grazing organisms such  as small fish and are subject to competition from algae.  Who knows  what daily routine in their lives we interrupt by lifting specimens  out  of the water. And these little critters have been around for awhile.  They  have a fossil record extending back some 500,000,000 years, to the  upper  Cambrian period.
  
 Identifying  a mass as a Bryozoa (or plural Bryozoan since there are  millions of  them in one cluster) is enough for us. To identify the exact species   would be a painstaking job as there are about 5,000 living species in  the world.  And in some cases, they can be downright nuisances as they  often clog water  intakes. Yet, they produce an incredible variety of  chemical compounds, some of  which may possibly find uses in modern  medicine. As an example, one compound  produced by a marine species of  Bryozoa, the drug bryostatin 1, is currently  under serious testing as  an anti-cancer drug.
  
 If  you want to be “one up”, these little - and sometimes, not so little -    critters of shallow water, are scientifically known as Pectinatella  magnifica.  The next time you see one of these globs attached to an  underwater plant or  fallen tree branch, impress everyone with your new  found knowledge of the foul  and the loathsome. Then bravely reach in  the water and hold one up in your  cupped hands for all to see. You will  undoubtedly experience a few squeamish  expressions from onlookers. You  will also need a few paper towels and lots of  cleaner to rid your  hands of the accumulated slippery mucus. Enjoy! 
  
 “The  Blob” can be found in Fourth Depot Lake. However, any body of slow   moving water will usually yield a few Bryozoan at this time of the year.  
  
 For more information on birding and nature and guided hikes, check out the  NatureStuff website at www.naturestuff.net       
  
 Terry Sprague lives in Prince Edward County and is self-employed as a  professional interpretive naturalist.