Portugese Man-o-War

I hate jellyfish, they are beautiful and fascinating creatures and (so far) have done me no harm, but I would rather swim with sharks than jellyfish ... the thought of those stings ... not nice!

It was the day before we were due to fly home, we were staying in Miami, the weather was (as usual) warm and sunny so it was off to Crandon Park beach on Key Biscayne. Greeted at the park entrance with a sign saying "jellies" .. oh well at least there is still the relaxing under the palm trees. There were a few jellyfish at the sea's edge and they looked fairly small and harmless, plus being bright blue they would be easily spotted, and there were some other people in the sea....so I managed to persuade my daughter to go into the sea with me. After a few minutes proving how brave we were in the shallows we decided that perhaps the sea was not so inviting after all.

When we got home I decided to check out what sort of jellyfish this was. A Portugese Man-o-War !!!....perhaps the most infamous jellyfish known since my childhood. Not the most dangerous jellyfish in the sea (that honour seems to go to the Box jellyfish) but are certainly capable of killing people with their sting in the wrong circumstances.

So lessons in life here...
don't follow others...they may be doing something stupid
there is always another day ...just because it is the last day of holidays save that swim if advised
pretty things are often dangerous :-)
Key Biscayne guide to Portuguese Man-o-War