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Wildlife Spotting

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30.3344, -81.3987

Field Notes

Description:

The center is about 2 inches in diameter with blue tentacles. Kind of slimey looking like a jellyfish.

Habitat:

Ocean

Notes:

Found several of these while walking on the beach this morning...
Could it be a baby portuguese man-o-war? Also saw a full grown man-o-war (I think - photo also attached!) washed up on the beach with similar coloring so just wondering...

Species ID Suggestions

Blue Button

Porpita porpita

Reference Link
mattsilvia7
4

Comments (5)
MarkL
Someone I know spotted one of those last summer in South Carolina. She looked it up back then and discovered its from the Pacific. Must have hitched a ride through the Panama Canal...
beachhousejulie
You are both correct, thank you for solving the mystery and for sending the links...very cool! I walk on the beach all the time but have never seen one until today. Nice to know what it is! :-)
mattsilvia7
It's not actually a jelly, but a hydrozoan called a Blue Button. The Portuguese Man-o-war has a very distinctive sail-like structure that makes it pretty unmistakable.
iPlayBanjoNow
This looks like the same thing, right? http://www.flickr.com/photos/jebrandt/2698582581/ Someone says it's a blue button jelly (Porpita porpita). Wikipedia says it's not actually a jellyfish at all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpita_porpita

Tags

Photographed
PublishedMay 12, 2011

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