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Comment by anexprogrammer | Hacker News Reader

Going on what we know (sod all), it seems just as likely that the lack of barnacles is down to different materials between the pieces.

Maybe some pieces are too smooth or the wrong flavour? The photo with barnacles attached seems to show them aggregating on the framework and edges only, so maybe they just don't like the paint.

I'd expect a lot of parts to show up together due to the action of tides and currents.

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I'm no expert, but I've seen plenty of flotsam and jetsam on beaches in my time, and I can't recall seeing a barnacle on any of it.

Barnacles tend to aggregate on pretty much anything - smooth or no. Talk to any boat owner.

The only reason they'd be barnacle free is if the paint is in some way ablative, and comes off in layers - which is how marine anti-barnacle paint works - it's very unlikely they'd lack them otherwise.

There is also paint that is poisonous to the barnacles- that's how anti-barnacle paint used to work in the marine industry. But having all of that poison (for example, lead was famously used back in the day) was determined to not be good for the our environmental health.

Since planes are in a different environment, it's possible that they use paint that is toxic to barnacles (but perhaps is otherwise unsuitable as marine bottom paint).

That's true - fair point.

I always put anti-barnacle paint on my airplanes. Those things are terrible for aerodynamic flow and seriously increase drag. ;-)

My first thought was that maybe breaker waves cleaned up the found parts just like in tumble cleaners.

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