So in the last 4 months i have never seen the Portuguese Man of War until yesterday when we had 4/5 seperate incidents of people getting stung. We checked the ocean and sure enough there was a great number of these jellyfish like creatures, they are also known as blue bottles. Its venomous tentacles can deliver a powerful sting.
The Portugues Man of War lives at the surface of the ocean, the gas filled bladder remains at the surface whilst everything else is submerged. This creature has no means to move itself so it relys on winds and currents, it can be found anywhere in the ocean, especially in warmer waters. The water around the coast of Kaikoura is normally approximately 16 degrees however the last few days the temperature has increased to 18/19degrees. These creatures are most commonly found in the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. They are mainly found in large numbers and sometimes washed up onto beaches, which could cause the beach to be closed.
The blue bottle can paralyze small fish using the venom in its long tentacles, stings usually cause sevee pain to humans. The loggerhead turtle feeds on the blue bottles, the logger heads skin is too thik for the sting to penetrate.
So although pretty cool to see at sea, unfortunately these guys can be a big hazard, so for future trips we'll keep our eyes peeled and hopefully we wont swim into too many more. We managed to get a few to show in the Kaikoura Aquarium for people to see. They are pretty strange as you can see...
(pic from internet)
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