Salps are technically a microplankton that can exist as solo creatures in the sea, but more often link up to form long chains that can stretch to be up to 15 ft (about 4.5 m) long.

Shaped like a narrow barrel, sea salps can grow as long as a human, adding onto itself like a chain, she said. The salp Clements came across appears to be 2 to 3 feet long, which Heidelberg said ...

The sea salps like to hang out with their buddies the pyrosomes, pictured below. What a bunch of ugly barrel-shaped things they are. The sea salp.

A paddleboarder off the coast of Dana Point, California, sees sea salps for the first time. The video shows Bill Clements discovering the marine creature and wondering about it.