Barnacles on a broken outlet pipe on Druridge Bay beach, Northumberland
A barnacle is a type of arthropod constituting the subclass Cirripedia in the subphylum Crustacea, and is hence related to crabs and lobsters. Barnacles are exclusively marine, and tend to live in shallow and tidal waters, typically in erosive settings. They are sessile(nonmobile) and most are suspension feeders, but those in infraclass Rhizocephala are highly specialized parasites on crustaceans. They have four nektonic (active swimming) larval stages. Around 1,000 barnacle species are currently known. The name “Cirripedia” is Latin, meaning “curl-footed”. The study of barnacles is called cirripedology.
Druridge Bay is a 7-mile (11 km) long bay on the North Sea in Northumberland, England, stretching from Amble in the north to Cresswell in the south.
Northumberland Coast Country Park is situated on the bay, and part of the bay (the section near the farmstead of Druridge, in the centre of the bay) is owned by the National Trust. Coastal areas on the bay are set aside as nature reserves.