First time I hear of this. I got stung with small guys in Mexico, but these guys sound dangerous. I would of thought the waters up here are too cold for them.
It’s one of the only things in Canadian waters that can strike swimmers with a scream-inducing sting — and summer beachgoers keep spotting them in Nova Scotia.
The Portuguese man o’ war, a venomous jellylike organism known as the “floating terror,” has officially returned to Atlantic Canada.
“They would definitely be one of the most harmful organisms in Nova Scotia waters – as they do pack a pretty potent sting,” wrote Bethany Nordstrom, an investigator at Dalhousie University, in an email to the National Post.
Nordstrom tracks jellyfish sightings throughout the East Coast. While last year was completely man o’ war free, so far this summer she has received five reports of the creatures on Nova Scotia beaches.
The organisms are not native to Canadian waters, but can be blown north by unusual conditions.
Dale Calder, an invertebrate expert at the Royal Ontario Museum, told the National Post that Nova Scotia sightings of the creatures date back to at least the 1880s and are a “sporadic” occurrence in the Maritimes.
“Ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream flow somewhat like a river, but they also generate eddies and gyres along their edges that break away from the main flow and carry warm water shorewards,” he wrote in an email.
It’s one of those rogue gyres and eddies that would have been responsible for the most recent invasion of man o’ wars. For the same reason, Nova Scotia beaches are likely being bombarded with tropical seaweeds and other foreign arrivals.
More commonly found in the U.S. South, the man o’ war’s bright blue tentacles are lined with nematocysts; essentially, tiny poison harpoons that stab into anything unlucky enough to float past.
In 2008, Florida swimmer Cameron Moeller described a man o’ war sting as being “like a hot knife going in.”
http://nationalpost.com/g00/news/it...87c3f2?i10c.referrer=http://nationalpost.com/
It’s one of the only things in Canadian waters that can strike swimmers with a scream-inducing sting — and summer beachgoers keep spotting them in Nova Scotia.
The Portuguese man o’ war, a venomous jellylike organism known as the “floating terror,” has officially returned to Atlantic Canada.
“They would definitely be one of the most harmful organisms in Nova Scotia waters – as they do pack a pretty potent sting,” wrote Bethany Nordstrom, an investigator at Dalhousie University, in an email to the National Post.
Nordstrom tracks jellyfish sightings throughout the East Coast. While last year was completely man o’ war free, so far this summer she has received five reports of the creatures on Nova Scotia beaches.
The organisms are not native to Canadian waters, but can be blown north by unusual conditions.
Dale Calder, an invertebrate expert at the Royal Ontario Museum, told the National Post that Nova Scotia sightings of the creatures date back to at least the 1880s and are a “sporadic” occurrence in the Maritimes.
“Ocean currents such as the Gulf Stream flow somewhat like a river, but they also generate eddies and gyres along their edges that break away from the main flow and carry warm water shorewards,” he wrote in an email.
It’s one of those rogue gyres and eddies that would have been responsible for the most recent invasion of man o’ wars. For the same reason, Nova Scotia beaches are likely being bombarded with tropical seaweeds and other foreign arrivals.
More commonly found in the U.S. South, the man o’ war’s bright blue tentacles are lined with nematocysts; essentially, tiny poison harpoons that stab into anything unlucky enough to float past.
In 2008, Florida swimmer Cameron Moeller described a man o’ war sting as being “like a hot knife going in.”
http://nationalpost.com/g00/news/it...87c3f2?i10c.referrer=http://nationalpost.com/
