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IMAGE: Lepas are a genus of goose barnacles which are abundantly found on flotsam all around the world. view more
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A common barnacle could be used to help trace missing persons lost at sea, according to research by UNSW Science.
Researchers from the Centre for Marine Science and Innovation have developed an equation that can estimate the minimum time an object has spent drifting at sea by counting the number of Lepas anserifera attached to the object.
They also developed an equation which can help plot possible drift paths of a missing boat. We saw this opportunity that Lepas could possibly fill in this gap in that marine forensic process and possibly contribute (to finding missing people), study lead author Thomas Mesaglio said.