Good Morning Boaters, Cruisers, and Loopers!!

Cruisers and boaters along the west coast of Florida were warned a week ago to be aware of the Jellyfish in the water.  We were aware a few days earlier than that.

This is an early morning picture of the waters behind a boat on our dock.  They have a blue light shining below the water line all night long.  In the wee hours of the morning, large fish accumulate to feed off the smaller fish drawn to the light.  On top of the water were silver dollar sized floating opaque objects.  I recognized them from the Jellyfish display at Mote Aquarium as baby jellyfish.

Baby Jellyfish

Yes, the fish are dinner sized but we don’t fish nor are they easily baited by the time they get this large.

Then the winds and current changed and carried a few Moon Jellyfish and a slew of Sea Nettle Jellyfish into Marina Jacks Marina.  One dock mate said he saw a “Man-of-war” floating around.  We did not.

Moon Jellyfish

Moon and Sea Nettle Jellies

Look at those tentacles!!  Some of them looked almost 2 feet long!

What is a tangle of Jellies called?

Pink lights shining on these two Sea Nettle Jellies

Yes, the local divers say the Sea Nettles tentacles do sting!!  They have vinegar at the ready for any and all contact with these little guys and gals.

I enjoyed watching them swim around each other.  Bouncing off the side of the floating dock.  Trying to navigate around all the boats and dinghies.  Even watched this one-legged crab swim for its life to get away from the jellies.  It swam over to our boat and hugged our hull until the jellyfish moved away.

I still see an occasional jellyfish.  Reminds me of the Cannonball Jellies we saw a couple of years ago.

Lastly, if you have 2 minutes, a short video of some of the Jellies swimming around.  The slapping noise in the first half is the lines (rope) on the sailboat nearby and the winds causing the lines to “slap” the poles.  Sometimes the constant slapping noise is rather annoying.  Enjoy.

The video was captured using my cellphone. The glare on the water made it difficult to capture what the eyes see.  They were fun to watch non-the-less.