The name Blue Bottle just doesn’t cut it, not when you know the rest of the world calls them, the far more scary, Portuguese Men of War. These creatures are more likely to sting you here, than in any other country, so the Australian name is especially disappointing – you’d get a lot more sympathy if you’d been stung by a Portuguese Man of War rather than a common Blue Bottle.
It was meant to be the adventure of a lifetime – off to sail the seven seas, but tragically the adventure turned into a nightmare for these By-The-Wind Sailors who were ironically caught by-the-wind and washed up in Botany Bay.
I can’t think of any creature less scary than a comb jellyfish. They’re small, they don’t sting, they’re 95% water and they put on a pretty little light show. Lovely. But you wouldn’t say that if you were a comb jellyfish. These hungry little creatures are voracious predators that like to eat each other. They’ll even attack and eat other comb jellyfish twice their size.
Out at sea, a war rages between blue bottles and their nemesis – Glaucus Atlanticus. These seaslugs float upside-down on the surface of the ocean in search of their prey… tasty blue bottles. Occasionally an onshore wind intervenes and the whole armada ends up on the beach.