Two dangerous Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish found on Fripp Island on New Year’s Day
Pebbles Turbeville thought she was looking at a balloon.
The Fripp Island resident spent the morning of New Year’s Day as she spends almost every morning: walking her dog along the beach, taking pictures of the sunset and picking up trash.
When she saw a small blue object wedged into reeds nearby, she went to grab it, thinking it was another piece of trash. Then she looked closer.
“I am not a biologist, and I don’t play one on TV,” Turbeville said Thursday. “But it was definitely a Man-of-War.”
Portuguese Men-of-War are jellyfish-like colonies of organisms called siphonophores that use venom to paralyze and kill small creatures, according to National Geographic.
While their stings are rarely deadly for humans, they are “far more painful than a regular jellyfish sting,” said Erin Weeks, a spokeswoman for South Carolina’s Department of Natural Resources.
They’re known for their vibrant blue color and long, thin tentacles, though Turbeville said the two she spotted that morning were “translucent” from the sunrise.
“The photographer part of me said, ‘Oh, I’m going to get a cool picture of this,” she said Thursday.
Generally, the tropical creatures wash ashore in warmer weather, starting in May, Weeks said. However, offshore storms and onshore winds can bring the Men-of-War and other invertebrates to the beach out of season.
“Every winter, we do typically get mass strandings of hundreds or thousands of creatures,” she said Thursday.
Weeks said the Fripp Island strandings are the only recently reported Man-of-War sightings in South Carolina, but DNR has received reports of dozens of stranded sea stars closer to Charleston.
Turbeville said she buried the Men-of-War she found and notified island security. She hasn’t seen any more on the island, but did see other stranded Men-of-War photographed on North Carolina’s Atlantic Beach in a nature photography Facebook group.
If you’re stung by a Man-of-War, you should flush the area with ocean water or hot water, the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette previously reported.
But to avoid a trip to the hospital for “overwhelming” pain that “lasts a very long time,” don’t pick up a Man-of-War in the first place, Weeks said — even if it’s dead.
“Just don’t touch them,” she said. “Or you’ll be in a world of hurt.”
This story was originally published January 2, 2020 at 3:29 PM.