Well I am sure that I have said this many times before....the beach is forever changing. Today I went for a short stroll, camera in hand, to find the beach deserted. The dark clouds were being blown in from the south east as I stood gazing out at the looming storm. They were murky and bleak and made the ocean look leaden.
As I made my way along the sand it struck me that there were very few shells this afternoon, no sea weed, no pieces of drift wood either. Instead, there were thousands of blue bottles.
For those of you who have never seen a bluebottle they have a float or bottle-shaped blue sac, which sits on the water's surface. They have many string-like tentacles hanging down from the float Bluebottles eat tiny fish, small crabs and plankton. Now if you have never had an experience with them, I suggest that you keep it that way lol.
Bluebottles usually attract people when they are washed up on the beach. When they are in the water the bluebottle appears translucent and is often unnoticed. However, against the sand they are quite colourful and are often mistaken as shells or weed. Should you try to pick one up it will give you a good sting.
As children we went to the beach and my sister thought that she was piking up a shell. Her hand was stung badly enough for my parents to take her to a lifeguard. He explained that although the sting was not deadly it was extremely painful causing a massive burning sensation that was painful enough to make a grown man cry. The toxin secreted by their tenticles is about 75% as powerful as cobra venom and leaves a nasty red tail-like welt where the tenticle lays against your limb or body. The lifeguard washed the area with vinegar and my sister lived to tell the story.
Anyway, I took a few photos and sat and watched as the dark blue skies turned to dark gray clouds and eventually they became a light rain. I made it home before getting completely soaked.
No comments:
Post a Comment