I have never seen so many Blue Bottles in my life. What is going on? I wore a couple around my ankles. Its not so much the sting, although it does get a bit scary when the pain rises up your leg and into the cohones region, but the itch that comes afterward. Don't get me wrong, I have seen Blue Bottles before but not in plague proportions like this weekend. The water surface was just littered with them and the ones blown onto the beach covered the shore line as far as the eye could see.
Fascinating fact - The Blue Bottle or Portugese Man-of-War Jellyfish is not actually a jelly fish but instead 4 separate organism (polyps) making up a colony called a Siphonophore.
Blue bottles apparently get washed in from warmer water (i.e. up North) when the wind direction is favourable. On the East Coast this means they show up during the summer when the Seabreeze blows from the NE.Luckily in WA they come in after a few days of NW winds which mainly happen during winter. Luckily because in winter you'll be most likely wearing a full wetsuit anyway.
If we get a lot of sailing in summer with no easterly overnight you get more also. Few years ago we had a plague at Lano, I had to deliberately get into a thick patch of them to waterstart. Kinda hard decision to make hahaha but when you're out the back you need to come home.....
