Tiny ‘alien’ creature dubbed the silver sea slug washes up on Florida shoreline… and the truth is even scarier than the photo
As families and holidaymakers make plans to rush to beach this spring break, one traveler has issued a stark warning about a dangerous creature that may wash up along the shore.
A beachgoer found an ‘absolutely amazing’ creature in the ocean that appeared to be as ‘small as my thumb’ during a trip to Miami a few years ago.
The traveler, unaware that they had stumbled upon a venomous sea dragon, scooped the tiny creature up and placed it in a Styrofoam cup with some ocean water.
‘My son and I walked to both lifeguard stands to ask if they knew what it was. No one knew,’ the holidaymaker recalled in the Things in Florida Facebook group, noting how they later learned ‘it was a type of Sea Dragon and venomous’.
They put the blue dragon, which has the scientific name of glaucus atlanticus, back into to Atlantic Ocean and very revealed they did not get stung.
The holidaymaker is now warning others to be mindful of poisonous blue dragons, which sail on the surface of the ocean and feed on jellyfish.
Blue dragons, which are more venomous than the Portuguese Man O’ War, are more prevalent on US beaches in the spring as southeast winds increase, experts warn.
Facebook users were fascinated by the traveler’s photo of the creature, hailing it as ‘beautiful’ and like nothing they had ever seen before.
One user suggested the creature was an ‘alien‘ lifeform, while another joked: ‘That’s a Pokémon.’
‘When I first saw pics of these things I did not think they were real,’ one commented, adding: ‘You are fortunate that you did not get stung.’
Another warned: ‘That little guy can pack a massive punch. Their venom will land you in the hospital, if not worse!!!!’
One user said they found a sea dragon in Outer Banks, North Carolina fall. ‘Thankfully my husband knew what it was and no one touched it,’ she said. ‘But it looked so cool!’
‘I found that on a Texas beach,’ another added. ‘It was blue as well. We were fascinated by it, had no idea it was poisonous until yeas later.’
Thousands of blue dragons washed up on beaches across Texas last March after being blown in my strong winds from the Gulf of Mexico.
At the time, marine experts warned beachgoers to be careful not to step on or touch the tiny one-inch sea creatures, as doing so could result in a painful sting.
‘There’s all kinds of stories of people accidentally stepping on these blue dragons or picking them up and squeezing them and getting stung,’ Jace Tunnell, a marine biologist at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, told NBC News.
‘It doesn’t end well,’ she added, noting that holidaymakers would ‘know immediately if you are stung by a blue dragon’.
Tunnell said a blue dragon sting would cause ‘intense pain, claiming it feels ‘like somebody has needles that they’re scraping across your skin‘.
A sting can cause extreme pain, nausea, vomiting and even hospitalization, but Tunell warned that until someone is stung, ‘you don’t know how your body is going to react to the venom’.
She warned that blue dragons will sting in the water if they ‘feel threatened or agitated’. They can also sting after they’ve come ashore and died.
Blue dragons predominately live in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, but experts warn their habitats are expanding.
The species has been spotted in European waters, along Australia’s east coast and on the east and south coasts of South Africa.
Tunnell said she expects the creature’s habitat to continue to grow, citing ‘warming temperatures’ and climate change as a possible factor for the expansion.
