Hi Raja. Interesting possibility, though I'm fairly sure not barnacles (though I'm no expert!). I am talking about the continuous crust (with occasional "cups" or openings) behind/under the small barnacles in the pictures, which doesn't look like barnacles I've seen before. Seems like there is a lot of extra, smooth calcareous material around each "cup" for it to be barnacles(?). It also comes off the rock fairly easily, whereas barnacles tend to be cemented more firmly. Unless really early juveniles look/are like this (e.g., if they settle in super-dense clusters)...?

You are right, it is a crustose red seaweed (Corallinales). Now, you should check the morphology of the conceptacle (seem to be that the roof is lower than the margin, but it could be that the conceptacle is collapsed) and if they are uniporate or multiporate. Using a local key maybe you could find the genus.

Good luck.

Hello Raja, Andre, and Ricardo,

Thank you all so much for your input! I can confirm it as a crustose red seaweed now, because I've found a small section in my samples that still has its pigmentation (purple). I've tried looking more closely at the conceptacles - it seems the roof is lower than the margin, and that they are uniporate, but it is difficult to tell because my microscope isn't so good. I will look into examining the conceptacles more closely under a stronger scope, and update with new pictures/info when I do.

Thanks again,

Brady

P.S. - Raja: It would be interesting to see such a "spatfall" of barnacles! If you have a picture, I'd love to see it.

Spats of barnacles

I agree that these are barnaclessettling on and encrusted by coraline algae that has been bleached w/o Ascophyllum cover.