Today we drove down to the Florida Keys and saw many different cool sights. We went to the blue hole, saw some gators, say the key deer, and went snorkeling. One of our last was the Veterans Memorial Park. Here we were supposed to go snorkeling, key word 'supposed' to. While walking in the water we noticed something that kind of look like sea anemones or something sticking out of the ground. Later we found out that these were called upside down jellyfish. After finding out what these were, we started to seem them all over the place.
The reason why the upside down jellyfish lays on the ocean floor with its tentacles up is because they have algae that is living inside of them. These algae are then able to go through photosynthesis because they are almost constantly facing the sun. This allows them to live of the food that is produced by the algae. They can also feed off of zooplankton but being able to live of food produced by the algae that lives inside of them is very different than other jellyfish. These jellyfish can still sting you just like any other jellyfish, but I found out that they only do this when they are disturbed on the bottom.
When we started to walk farther into the water we noticed there started to be more and more of these jellyfish as you can see from the picture above. While Harrison, Scott, and Beka continued to walk out deeper (and probably get stung) the rest of us stayed back. When they came back Harrison said how he had felt like he had gotten stung by them and it was starting to affect him, but Beka and Scott didn't really seem to be bothered by them. This is because depending on the person and how sensitive their skin is it can affect them differently. Some of us mentioned how we heard that peeing on the stings would relieve the pain, we later realized this was not true (good thing they didn't actually listen to us).
If you want to visit Veterans Memorial Park and possibly see some of these... https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g34393-d7257381-Reviews-Veterans_Memorial_Park-Little_Torch_Key_Lower_Keys_Florida_Keys_Florida.html
If you need to know how to treat different kinds of jellyfish stings... https://www.keywestaquarium.com/florida-keys-jellyfish
Madison,
ReplyDeleteI loved how you mentioned our group members getting stung. I also like how you mentioned the reason for them being upside down. The alge in them as you mentioned need to use photosynthesis, its almost like a flower on the sea floor...except it stings.
I can tell you first hand of the effect of the sting, it was mild underwater but after the sting was exposed to air it became more and more irritated. After a minute though the irritation went away and it wasn't much more than a mosquito bite. overall 3/10 wouldn't do again.
DeleteThis was a beach that we will never forget and will never go in again now knowing that it is filled with upside down jellyfish. I also find it interesting that the type of reaction of the sting is dependent on the person just like allergies. I would like to know more about the specifics of the varying degree of reactions to the jellyfish sting.
ReplyDeleteI'm really glad that nobody went through with peeing on me... I can confirm that the sting is worse than a thousand bug bites!
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