“The presence of the “Portuguese Man o’ War “, a type of medusa or marine species similar to the jellyfish, is due to the bad weather conditions, locally known as “Norte“, reported Josefina del Carmen Santos Valencia, a researcher at the Regional Fisheries Research Center in Yucatan (Centro Regional de Investigación Pesquera de Yucatán), that belongs to the National Fisheries Institute (Instituto Nacional de Pesca).
The group “Yucatan Coast Living-Sisal” published on Saturday Jan. 5, on their Facebook account, a photo of a “Portuguese man o’ war” specimen on the beaches of Sisal and warned of the danger of its bite, which is very painful and harmful.
Researcher Josefina Santos said that in fact, the species observed in the Yucatan coast is the “Portuguese man o’ war”, but there is no “invasion”, or anything like that, as the specimen arrived to the Yucatecan coasts as a consequence of the strong ties brought by the “Norte“.
She admitted that the “Portuguese man o’ war ” is also known as “frigate”, “aguamala“, “blue bottle” or “false jellyfish”, and is a monotypic species of hydrozoan siphonophore of the Physaliidae family, and the scientist explained that it is indeed dangerous but not fatal.
This marine species is detected quite easily, because it always has a part floating outside the water, making it visible from the surface.
TYT Newsroom with information from yucatan.com.mx
