Dove a 60-foot pier repair in Galveston last week

Saw something weird down there. A whole colony of barnacles had built up on a cathodic protection anode. Never seen them attach that thick to zinc before. Any of you guys run into barnacles messing with your anode readings?

2 comments

2 Comments

lindaowens1mo ago

Whoa, hold on, that is WILD. I've been telling people for years that nature finds a way to mess with ANYTHING we engineer. Those barnacles just decided a perfectly good zinc was a PRIME spot for a new neighborhood. It makes me wonder if we're not giving the little critters enough credit for being smarter than we think. Like, maybe they're flocking to those anodes because they sense something different about the metal, and nobody's actually studied why. It's the same deal with how ants will build a colony inside a circuit breaker box, or moss will ONLY grow on the north side of a painted fence. We think we have it all figured out, but something as simple as a barnacle can throw off a whole system.

margaret_gonzalez251mo ago

Totally agree with you on that! It's like nature just ignores our blueprints and does its own thing anyway. I've seen stuff like that at the marina where I keep my boat, the barnacles will cover the zinc anodes like nobody's business. It makes you think the critters are onto something we're missing, like a chemical signal or a specific mineral they love. We really do act like we're the masters of the universe until a tiny shell decides to ruin our whole plan.