Salp

A salp (plural salps) or salpa (plural salpae or salpas) is a barrel-shaped, planktonic tunicate. It moves by contracting, thus pumping water through its gelatinous body. Salp jet propulsion is one of the most efficient in the animal kingdom. The salp strains the pumped water through its internal feeding filters, feeding on phytoplankton.

Distribution

Salps are common in equatorial, temperate, and cold seas, where they can be seen at the surface, singly or in long, stringy colonies. The most abundant concentrations of salps are in the Southern Ocean (near Antarctica), where they sometimes form enormous swarms, often in deep water, and are sometimes even more abundant than krill. Since 1910, while krill populations in the Southern Ocean have declined, salp populations appear to be increasing. Salps have been seen in increasing numbers along the coast of Washington.

Life history

Salps have a complex lifecycle, with an obligatory alternation of generations. Both portions of the lifecycle exist together in the seas—they look quite different, but both are mostly transparent, tubular, gelatinous animals that are typically between 1 and 10 cm (0.39 and 3.94 in) tall. The solitary life history phase, also known as an oozoid, is a single, barrel-shaped animal that reproduces asexually by producing a chain of tens to hundreds of individuals, which are released from the parent at a small size.

Salpul

Salpul (also called Salpu and Juan Salpú) was a northern, or guennekenk, Tehuelche leader in the late 19th century in Patagonia, Argentina. He allied with the tribes of Sayhueque, Inacayal, and Foyel (the last Patagonian indigenous chieftains who refused to recognize the Argentine government). They fought against the Argentine Army during the Conquest of the Desert.

In 1897, Salpul and a shaman named Cayupil (Caypül) tried to organize an uprising against the government. Their activities were quickly discovered by the authorities. Salpul was arrested and taken to Buenos Aires, but he was released within a month and returned home. Afterward he allied his people with the tribe of his relative Juan Sacamata. Between the 1890s and 1900, both lived in Nueva Lubecka, located in the Genoa Valley, Chubut province. Salpul died some years later in Pastos Blancos, near the Senguerr river.

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