A Rare Man O' War Sea Creature Was Found In Atlantic Canada After A Little Kid Got Stung
This is scary stuff! A Portuguese man o' war in Nova Scotia stung a little girl while she was playing at the beach. The sea creature isn't native to Canadain waters and is pretty rare to see on the Atlantic coast.
A seven-year-old girl was swimming in the water at Lawrencetown Beach, east of Halifax, on August 9 when she encountered the Portuguese man o' war.
She thought a pair of pink sunglasses was floating in the water but when she grabbed the object, she was stung.
That's because it wasn't sunglasses but a man o' war, a jellyfish-like sea creature.
Kristy Legge, the girl's mother, told CTV News about what happened.
"I heard her screaming, she was screaming and crying like I'd never heard, and she came running up to the beach and showed us her hand," said Legge.
The seven-year-old flung the jellyfish-like animal away from her but some of the tentacles were still attached to her hand.
The remaining ones were taken off of the little girl by a towel.
Legge said that her daughter was wearing a wetsuit so she was only stung on her hand.
According to National Geographic, the sting is excruciatingly painful for humans but is rarely deadly. Even one that's washed up on shore can sting you.
The tentacles are usually 30 feet but can be as long as 165 feet.
The seven-year-old's encounter with the sea creature and other sightings could be attributed to warmer waters off the coast of Nova Scotia.
"It's certainly something that we expect to see more of as waters warm with climate change," said Aaron MacNeil, associate professor of biology at Dalhousie University, to CTV News.
He noted that this year is warmer than expected in the north Atlantic so that could bring tropical animals to the province's beaches that aren't usually found there.
At the end of July, someone spotted a Portuguese man o' war washed ashore on a beach over 100 kilometres away from where the little girl was stung.
There is a lot of unique wildlife in Canada including some that are found nowhere else in the world and amazing encounters with animals.
In Newfoundland, beachgoers spotted a pink whale in the water and it was incredible.