Dead man’s fingers, green sea fingers, felty fingers, forked felt alga, oyster thief and various other interesting and folky names have been given to this simple but invasive alga as thick as a pencil. There are lots of alga – giant kelp is one. This one is a simple nonflowering plant and each ‘finger’ contains only one cell, some upwards of a foot long. These guys (not a fitting name since each finger is both male and female) grow in the intertidal zone and attach themselves to rocks, often hanging down at low water and look like, yes, dead man’s fingers. They often break away and are common in mat-forming masses that float with the wind and tide. You can find felty fingers (I like that name best) throughout the Salish Sea, but it’s not originally from here.

This plant evidently hitched a ride on a dirty-hulled cargo ship and probably came from the sea around Japan. With the help of us, and wind and waves, it’s now just about everywhere in cool seas. The problem with this plant is that it forms dense mats and can lift oysters, mussels and scallops off their native sites (oyster thief). It can stop shellfish from filtering food by smothering entire beaches at low tide. So, what’s the big deal for us? Think of all the shellfish, scallops and oysters you enjoy that now are threatened because of one ship carrying one of these plants. There aren’t any native plants like this, so if you see this thing, rest assured it’s a bad thing. To me, it’s just another example of how we’re messing with nature in ways we don’t realize until it’s too late.

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