Blue Bottle Jellyfish

Description:

Otherwise known as Portuguese Man of War. Locally known as the Blue bottle due to its amazing colour and shape. A buoyant bladder with a mass of down hanging tentacles for feeding and stinging On big specimens, stinging tentacles can reach up to 10 meters!!

Habitat:

Ocean going but often washed up in swarms on beaches. It has a rather nasty sting and in extreme cases, swimming beaches have had to be closed until it is cleared. These images taken at Tauranga Beach (a popular swimming and surfing beach) in the Bay of Plenty, NZ. One image shows a 75mm specimen with a metre long stinging tentacle and another of a specimen in a glass vase to show how these things sit in the water.

Notes:

A fascinating organism, this creature is actually made up of a collection of zooids. Each one having a different role (some make up the stinging tentacles, others the feed tentacles etc.) so as a collective, make up the whole animal.( Ref: Australian Fauna . Com) Unlike most jellyfish stings, it is recommended NOT to use vinegar on the sting site. (Ref: NZ Ministry of Health)