Behold, a very lovely trip to the hospital.
Last week I was at the beach, because it was actually not raining. It was a nice day. Well, you know, aside from the red and purple flags on the lifeguard station (meaning 'rip tide warning' and 'sea pests', respectively). Since pretty much everyone else was in the water and not getting stung or swept under, I figured it was fairly safe. About ten minutes after I got out of the water, this washed up on shore. I promptly decided that I'd had enough of swimming for the day.
You may recognize it as a Portuguese man o' war, technically not a jellyfish but I can't remember what it really is. I took a few classes in middle school at an oceanographic center, but the only thing I remember is that they had a live man o' war in a tank. One of the teachers touched it with a pen and told us that the pen would then sting anyone who touched it. Scary stuff, that.
Oo-er, scary!
ReplyDeleteWe get rather less frightening jellies on the beach here ... although the poor dog still needed a trip to the vet after he trod on a dead one. It wasn't really funny but if you've ever watched a whippet try not to stand on any of it's four paws you'll know why we couldn't help but giggle. Whilst also administering first aid and anti-histamines of course.
Great pictures :)