No Day at The Beach, Part I: Man of Wars Everywhere
Although there weren't many people there, the beach was filled with Portuguese Man of Wars, also known as blue bottle jellyfish. Last week, lifeguards were flying the purple warning flags, indicating the sea was filled with the creatures. Evidently, during the week, many washed ashore and died in the wrack line.
On the other hand, many Man of Wars were just sitting in the middle of the sand.The Portuguese Man of War is a jellyfish made up of many zooids. In other words, the Man of War is not a single organism, but many different zooids, each with a specific role to play and which, as a whole, function as if a single animal. The float digests food and supports the rest of the creature, while the tentacles hunt for prey. In the picture below, you can easily see the float, and the mass of zooids that live beneath it.
The Man of War feeds on small fish and surface-dwelling ocean creatures. They envelope their prey with their barbed tentacles, which contain a poison that paralyzes them. Notice how long the tentacles stretch in the image below. They can reach up to 30 feet in length!
Although they look like innocent blue packing material, Man of Wars can be very dangerous. If a tentacle attaches itself to you, wash the area without touching it and apply an ice pack to relieve the pain.
Although potentially dangerous, Man of Wars can be very pretty, I think.
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