This week I want to talk about my personal favorite surface animal, the blue sea dragon, or sea swallow (Glaucus spp.) I think blue sea dragon is the most fitting name because these animals look like mythical creatures or something from another world! They are sea slugs but they have some special tricks up their sleeves. They are vicious predators and eat many of the surface animals we’ve talked about previously like by-the-wind sailors, Portuguese man-o-wars, and blue buttons. They can eat jellyfish and other animals with stinging cells because they are immune to them, and on top of being immune to them they also store the stinging cells in special structures called cerata so that they can use them for their own defense! That’s right, these sea slugs have jellyfish stings!! The blue sea dragons have interesting coloration that serves as double camouflage, their top sides are blue and white to blend in with the ocean’s surface, and their underside is whitish to blend in with the sunlight shining through the water.

Wishing you all the best beach-combing finds!
-Ari Puentes

Hey everyone! We are getting close to having 500 contributors now which is pretty incredible!! Watching this project grow and seeing all of the amazing life that you all have found is such a great experience for the GO-SEA team, we seriously cannot thank you enough! For those of you who are new to GO-SEA, or for anyone who wants to learn more about our project, I encourage you to read this wonderful paper written by one of our marine biologists on the team, Dr. Rebecca Helm. The paper talks about the importance of surface life and gives lots of background knowledge on the surface ecosystem and why our research needs to be done. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001046

We will also be having another open lab meeting on Sunday, November 28th that anybody is welcome to attend. The meeting will be held virtually through Zoom and it will take place at 10AM HAST, 12PM PST, 3PM EST, 8PM BST (So many time zones to consider!) If you are interested in attending send us a message and we will send you the link!

I hope you all have a great week and I hope to see some of you next weekend!
Ari Puentes