I bet you weren’t expecting this wildlife in my next post! Yes, I am sharing photos of a small Chesapeake Bay Sea Nettle I saw down at the water at low tide three days ago. There were actually several, but this one was the largest, a young one less than 2″ wide.
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Chesapeake Bay Sea Nettle on its way to adulthood
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The Chesapeake Bay Sea Nettle grows to approximately 4-5″ wide with 24 stinging tentacles reaching several feet long. Their cousin, the Atlantic Sea Nettle, gets twice as large.
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Chesapeake Bay Sea Nettle
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Our sea nettles are abundant from May through October, then they’ll propel their way out to deeper waters of the Atlantic Ocean for the winter. If they do not make it, they will still be able to survive in deeper waters within the Bay.
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Chesapeake Bay Sea Nettle
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Jellyfish propel themselves through the water by rhythmically expanding and contracting their bells. A weak swimmer at best, jellyfish are mostly transported by wind and currents.
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Chesapeake Bay Sea Nettle
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If you’re newer to my blog, I shared two posts on sea nettles about two years ago. Probably from the recent hurricane by-pass, large ones had washed up in our creek. They were so beautiful and graceful, I was mesmerized with them.
