Ocean drifters

                                                        click on image to see more images
 

Ocean Drifters. Salps. Zooplankton. These tiny transparent living drifters can be seen in great congregations, experienced and swum through.  A 'soup' of tiny organisms. I saw mine at the Poor Knights Islands last December. 

    

Snorkling and swimming through the fabulous underwater gardens and swarms of salps inspired my  ‘Ocean Drifters’ series. Memories of the shapes and brilliant colours of sponges, swaying seaweeds and these tiny aquatic creatures appear in my work as floating organic forms. 

 

What are Salps?

 

Salps are Zooplankton, gelatinous, mostly transparent, and cylindrically shaped animals, which feed on phytoplankton . They range in size from a few millimetres at birth to around 10 cm as they grow, although one species is known to reach more than a few meters. Individual salps can clump in long chains.