Glaucus at Anna Bay, New South Wales

March 31, 2006
From: Jim Doyle

Washed up on the northern end of Stockton Beach, Birubi Point, were a number of Glaucus along with blue bottles and other blue creatures. They differed from the photographs that I have seen in that they were extremely "fat". So much so that their bodies were larger than their appendages.
This was before they "blew" themselves up.

A couple of people reported being stung by them.

Locality: Anna Bay , Beach, N.S.W, Australia, Pacific Ocean, 26 March 2006, Surf line (tide line). Length: 1 - 3 cm

Jim Doyle

doylejim@bmr.net.au

Doyle, J., 2006 (Mar 31) Glaucus at Anna Bay, New South Wales. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16206

Dear Jim,
The cyclone (hurricane) that has just worked its way down the Tasman Sea just off the east cost of Australia has certainly created the conditions which wash Glaucus and the 'blue fleet' ashore. Glaucus often becomes fat and inflated, as you describe, when washed up on the sand. I think it's to do with the design of their body. The only thing that keeps them 'in shape' is the fluid in their body cavity - what we call a 'hydrostatic skeleton'. Their cerata are quite sensitive to touch and so when they wash up on the sand their cerata are subjected to an overload of touch sensations and so contract as much as they can in an attempt to get away from the sensations. This contraction forces the fluid out of all the cerata into the body cavity where there is nowhere else for it to go - so the body wall stretches - and they become balloon-shaped. Not a happy end.
Best wishes,
Bill Rudman

Rudman, W.B., 2006 (Mar 31). Comment on Glaucus at Anna Bay, New South Wales by Jim Doyle. [Message in] Sea Slug Forum. Australian Museum, Sydney. Available from http://www.seaslugforum.net/find/16206

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