Bloody Bluebottles!

There are these horrible creatures that attack our eastern beaches and don't appear to have a useful purpose.  They are known to us as "blue bottles", but you have likely heard them called Portuguese Man O' War (Bluebottles). They are these bladder-like balloons with a blue-purple color that float on the surface of the sea.  They cannot swim so they rely on ocean currents and wind to carry them around.  Underneath the surface of the water they have these long tentacles that are armed with ridiculous stinging power.

So these guys will blow in regularly and those days are not good for swimming or surfing.  They may come in by the thousands, just waiting for the unsuspecting swimmer.  One day Tim, Baha, and I were out for a leisurely swim and ended up getting stung several times as we fought our way back to the beach.  On that day, we were wearing only board shorts, so we had a lot of exposed skin.

Yesterday the sun came out for the first time in a long time, so Tim, Baha, and I headed to Coogee to see if we could get a couple of fresh fillets to put on the grill.  There were HEAPS of blue bottles out, but we figured we'd be ok cuz we were wearing full length wetsuits.  We managed alright for some time, but as we were heading out deeper, a wave broke over me and my lips were on fire!  One of the damned things got its tentacles wrapped around my snorkel, mask, head, and neck!!  I was freaking out, pissed off, and feeling a rush of unpleasant sting.  I called Baha over and he used a glove to get the remaining tentacles off of me.  There were several other stings, including a good zapper on my adams apple and a nest of tentacles wrapped around my exposed ankle, but it was overall a great day!  Although, this morning my lip is still numb and I still have a noticeable mark on my throat...

I was successful in harvesting a Black Drummer - my first ever on the Zap 1000.  It was a very small fish (too small to be legally taken; it looked big underwater), but we filleted it anyway.  Tim also shot a fish.  His was a Rock Cale - known to the regular spearo's as Chit Fish or Boot fish.  You boil a Cale with your boot and when its ready to eat you throw out the cale and eat the boot.  lol

Anyway, think were going to try to get some more today.  The sun is shining and it's a good day to be outside!

Beached blue bottles at Coogee Beach.  Wretched little creatures!