UFO: String Bead Critter

[CuzzA]

Unidentified Floating Objects on my safety stop yesterday off Tampa Bay, Florida. There were a lot of them and there was no consistency on how many beads in the string, which suggests to me they could be eggs. But a spawn of what? And in the first pic it almost looks like a head and tail, suggesting they are not eggs.

Thoughts?

 

[CuzzA]

Salp?

 

[KeithG]

Salp?

we know them as pelagic tunicates. and it seems a salp is a type of pelagic tunicate?

 

[Searcaigh]

We get loads of that stuff in the Gulf of Oman, very seasonal and some large species too about half an inch thick, very solid

 

[diversteve]

Salp Chain - we saw a lot of them in Curacao once so I asked a local expert. Looked just like your 2nd photo. Each one is a separate animal.