What the heck are these?

[BrianS]

I remember seeing a few of these up at Lake O 2 years ago and now they are really thick in some areas of Bull Shoals. These photos are from the Lead Hill area. They resemble frog eggs but I dont know if that is really what they are. Can someone shed some light on this? I dont remember ever seeing these on Bull before.

[Ham]

Bryozoans. Strang colony of filter feeders. Maybe kinda like a gooey coral. They were having a big year before the water fell. Lol.

 

[BrianS]

Bryozoans? Hmmm never heard of them before. I was worried that the lake had been invaded by another exotic pest like zebra mussles.

[Phil Lilley]

Sent to me this morning by Bill Butts -

 

As the lake levels have been falling on Bull Shoals Lake and Lake Norfork, we have been receiving numerous questions about “gelatinous blobs” hanging from the buck brush along the shoreline of both lakes. We wanted to send out a short email blast with some information in case you or someone you know has seen one. The gelatinous masses are called bryozoans. The masses are actually a colony of individual microscopic aquatic invertebrates.  Here is a great article written by Missouri Department of Conservation describing bryozoans (http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/field-guide/bryozoans-moss-animals). They are harmless and are usually found in low numbers in both lakes. However, they are filter feeders and strive during high nutrient events like high water years. We have attached a couple of pictures of bryozoans we found in Lake Norfork today.

 

Again, we wanted to send out some information about bryozoans in case someone saw one and wondered what it was.

 

Thanks,

 

Jeremy Risley
District 2 Fisheries Supervisor

[BrianS]

Interesting read. Says its a sign of good water quality.

 

[XP 590]

I saw those at Little Dixie outside of Columbia.  Emailed the MDC and got a quick reply with a link to more info.  The ones floating here were bigger than a basketball.  Crazy looking things.

[Debbie Hughes Martin]

Just finished a day of scuba diving on Bull Shoals Lake from Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock to Jones Point and saw several large Bryozoans in the bushes that have been covered this year by high water --- much like we saw in the summer of 2015. Some where bigger than basketballs! Pretty cool. Sorry no pictures - did not take the camera today. Will try to get some pics tomorrow. 

[Johnsfolly]

On ‎10‎/‎26‎/‎2015 at 5:15 PM, XP 590 said:

I saw those at Little Dixie outside of Columbia.  Emailed the MDC and got a quick reply with a link to more info.  The ones floating here were bigger than a basketball.  Crazy looking things.

I saw a couple of basketball sized bryozoan colonies in little Dixie back in June.

[mojorig]

Yep, we are starting to receive calls about these on Bull Shoals. I suspect we will receive calls about them on Norfork Lake soon. You should hear some of the descriptions of these by callers. It can be very entertaining at times.

[DADAKOTA]

We call them brain balls