I remember one day, there was an odd occurrence. My mom and I, years ago, decided to take a walk along the beach, as we had done many times before. But, it looked like someone had left all these plastic bags filled with air everywhere. It was truly bizarre. I wondered who this slob was and why they filled these bags with air before leaving them all over the beach.
So we decided to investigate. As we came closer to one of these bags, we saw it was indeed very strange. It looked like it had been sewn up on the top, and what was that mess beneath it? We realized these were very strange jellyfish. We couldn’t tell if it was alive or not (I suppose we should have asked it), so we decided to return it to the sea, just in case. We thought hard on how to transport the odd jelly and decided to pick them up with seashells.
So we started carrying jellyfish after jellyfish to the ocean. We also found these round, brown ones that were smaller, but much heavier. We took a whole bunch to the water, but I doubt we got anywhere near all of them. We eventually gave up and returned home, where we decided to find out just what these things were. Turns out, the plastic bags filled with air were Portuguese Man-of-War, and the closest match to the brown jellyfish was a Sea Nettle. We had no idea how close we came to some pretty bad stings.
We never saw the jellyfish on the beach again. Once, we saw many of the brown ones in the water at the marina or whatever that place was floating beneath the surface. I wonder if any of those were the ones we saved. I wonder if any were grateful. Probably not.
A Jelly Duck
The Duck of Indeed 
Being just off Miami Beach my whole life I know all about these things. i expected this would be about how you were rushes to the hospital. They sting and are deadly toxic to some people. You actually handled them?
Good Lord Duck, read up on these and never touch them. You are very lucky. We have the purple ones here.
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We realized later how foolish we were. Hmm, perhaps next time I see animals I am not familiar with, I shouldn’t get near them. We didn’t actually touch the jellyfish, luckily, but we did get very close.
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Whether or not they were grateful, it appears they at least learned from their mistake.
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Yes, I guess they did. I guess that’s the most I can expect from living blobs of mush.
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Hey – it’s more than you can expect from sdome two-legged living blobs of mush.
But you and I are at opposite extremes on jellyfish – you have saved their lives and I have eaten them.
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You can eat jellyfish? I had no idea.
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Be careful Jelly Duck. The Man of War are apparently supposed to be deadly. And I think I’ll call you Thoughtful Duck from now on. Say hi to your thoughtful mom :).
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I had no idea at the time that those jellyfish were so dangerous. Gosh, how silly I was. My thoughtfulness can get me into trouble, I guess. I won’t go saving gators or sharks anytime soon, then.
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