These huge “Blue Bottles” (or Portuguese man o’ war marine organisms) washed up on the Witsand beach after days of intense South-Easter (onshore wind) blowing. In the soft late afternoon sun, they shone with a beautiful blue glow.
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©WMB/notesfromafrica.wordpress.com
©WMB/notesfromafrica.wordpress.com
©WMB/notesfromafrica.wordpress.com
A pair of sunglasses for scale ©WMB/notesfromafrica.wordpress.com
This post is part of the Daily Post | Weekly Photo Challenges | Shine
It is also part of my daily posts for October 2016 – otherwise known as The October Dash
Notes from Africa 
Don’t really look real do they?
Yes, they look like a balloon with strings attached.
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I must admit I didn’t trust you. But other images on the Internet have convinced me that these are not plastic thingies. Sorry. 🙂 Wikipedia also refers to them as floating terrors. I’m glad I never encountered them.
If I had never seen one, I’d also wonder about them. Living at the coast in South Africa, you grow up with them, and even kids know to get out of the water when they’re around. I have been stung by their tentacles – luckily not badly, but even then it’s painful.
Strange & beautiful creatures!
Yes, they look like alien organisms don’t they?
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Very cool but a little creepy looking. Nice choice for this week’s theme.
Thank you! It turned out to be a lucky find in our photo archives.
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Lisa – what a frightening photo to post on a peaceful Sunday morning here 🙂 🙂 🙂 !! If there is something besides bushfires to frighten one with summer coming it surely is bluebottles!!! Horrid, horrid, horrid creatures one normally sees too late! Does any sting hurt quite as much – over 10,000 Australians each summer will yell ‘no’! And all the anaphylactic reactions . . . we have had no deaths reported but there have been in other parts of the world . . . and many people have to be taken to hospital . . .do you know the longest tentacles reported have been over 30 metres . . . they may look pretty but, oh boy, DO keep away . . .
Willie and I have both been stung by blue bottles. Luckily we did not have any anaphylactic shock, but it was still a very painful experience for us both. These blue bottles had tentacles of 2 -3 metres – quite long by South African standards.
Oh wow, they look really scary… wouldn’t like to encounter one of those stingers floating in the ocean… I didn’t know they could come down as far as Witsand.
According to Wikipedia (!) they are found in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans. Willie says he’s seen them quite widely around South Africa.
Such beautiful creatures, and your photos are delightful!
Thank you! They are such unusual creatures – love the colour.
amazing creatures, their bodies look like some plastic toy from a weird out-of-space movie. Beautiful in their own way.
You described it so perfectly! They do look like alien plastic toys.
This is terrible but it totally looks like a unicorn condom : P