Dead Man's Rope

[icechip]

Noticed a lot of Dead Man's Rope in the water the last few weeks in a new season of diving, practically an entire forest of them. Chorda filum is the proper name, someone also said they were known as Sea Laces? Are they just a spring thing? Don't seem to encounter them in summer or fall diving here in northern New England.

 

[RyanT]

@Seaweed Doc?

 

[tursiops]

It is common, it comes in the spring, dies off later in the summer. Noted in the 1881 publication. "The Marine Algae of New England"

 

[Seaweed Doc]

It is common, it comes in the spring, dies off later in the summer. Noted in the 1881 publication. "The Marine Algae of New England"

I'm curious, never having gone diving in a part of the world where Chorda is found. Does it really die back in summer, or is it found deeper? (Or is this a case of dying off in really late summer as days get shorter?)

A weed I work with (Ulvaria obscura) was long thought to be a spring ephemeral, but that was determined by marine biologists walking on the beach. It's got "look alikes" and has to be brought back to the lab to verify species, and divers rarely collected it to verify species subtidally. Turns out it exists year-round, but doesn't tolerate drying out well so disappears just from the intertidal in summer.

Chorda couldn't be mistaken for anything else by a diver, though, and kelps tend not to be intertidal so maybe not.