Small but mighty and venomous creatures have caused the closure of tourist beaches for a second time in southeastern Spain this week after they were discovered in the water, local authorities announced Friday.<\/p>\n
The Glaucus atlanticus is colloquially named the \u201cblue dragon sea slug\u201d for its resemblance to the mythical dragon, and several more of them were found in the water off the beaches of Guardamar del Segura, in Alicante, Spain, this week.<\/p>\n
The Guardamar police prohibited beachgoers from swimming on Friday. In a post translated via Facebook<\/a>, police wrote: \u201cThe red flag is raised again on our beaches due to the presence of [what\u2019s] known as \u201cblue dragon\u201d (Glaucus atlanticus). It\u2019s a small sea clam whose sting can cause intense pain, vomiting and adverse reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n The latest advisory comes after authorities issued a red flag warning on Wednesday prohibiting swimming at the beaches due to the presence of blue dragon sea slugs. The region\u2019s mayor, Jos\u00e9 Luis S\u00e1ez, subsequently announced on Thursday<\/a> that swimming had been allowed again with a yellow flag warning.<\/p>\n If people see a blue dragon sea slug on the beach, S\u00e1ez advised<\/a> them not to touch it \u2014 not even with gloves \u2014 and said they should notify rescuers and authorities. If a person gets itchy, rinse with salt water and go to the emergency room or health center, he said.<\/p>\n Blue dragon sea slugs are only about 1.2 inches long, but they\u2019re mighty. The foraging predators feed off of much larger venomous prey, like the Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish, whose poison doesn\u2019t affect them. In fact, seizing poison from their victims is essential to their survival.<\/p>\n They have three pairs of \u201ctendril-tipped appendages that spread like wings,\u201d the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management<\/a> explains on its website. The blue dragons store the stolen stinging cells from their prey in their tendrils in a more highly concentrated dosage. \u201cThis increased potency of venom gives the blue dragon a vicious sting, allowing them to paralyze prey 300 times its size.\u201d<\/p>\n The creature drifts through the ocean, carried by currents and wind. It floats upside down on the sea\u2019s surface, supported by a gas bubble in its stomach, exposing its bright blue belly adorned with dark and light blue stripes, basically camouflaging itself from seabirds above. Its silvery gray back blends in with the sea surface, hiding it from fish below.<\/p>\n Blue dragon sea slugs are usually found in tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, but they have recently expanded to the east and south coasts of Australia, South Africa and even along the Texas Gulf Coast \u201clikely due to increased water temperatures from the impact of climate change and changes in ocean currents,\u201d the BOEM says<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Small but mighty and venomous creatures have caused the closure of tourist beaches for a second time in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[128191,128190,128195,2000,299,128192,128194,38481,128196,128193,104,128197],"class_list":{"0":"post-365909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-blue-dragon","9":"tag-blue-dragon-sea-slug","10":"tag-blue-dragons","11":"tag-eu","12":"tag-europe","13":"tag-glaucus-atlanticus","14":"tag-guardamar-del-segura","15":"tag-local-authorities","16":"tag-mythical-dragon","17":"tag-sea-slug","18":"tag-spain","19":"tag-venomous-creatures"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115075182200759860","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}