By Lauren Wanko
Correspondent
Most people would run from them, but Montclair State University’s Dr. Paul Bologna and his team are heading toward a bucketful of them — the Portuguese Man-of-War.
“Portuguese Man-of-War is a group referred to as an cnidarian, so in the cnidarians are true jellyfish, things like sea coral, sea anemones and things like siphonophores which is a Portuguese Man-of-War. One of the major characteristics is they all possess stinging cells, and so that’s why we think about Portuguese Man-of-War, we tend to clump them with true jellyfish even though that’s not what they really are,” Dr. Bologna said.
On this day, Dr. Bologna’s picking up five man-of-wars caught by the Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol in one morning, plus another two from the day before. Captain Randy Townsend says his lifeguards have found about 15 since mid-June.
When asked if he’s seen anything like this before, Townsend said, “No, never before.”
“There is a handful of species that can be really, really toxic. Portuguese Man-of-War will deliver an extremely painful sting. Even when washed up and appears dead, the stinging cells in the tentacles are still active,” Dr. Bologna said. “There are reports of people dying from them. In general these are cases of sort of severe stings.”
“Of course I think we should be cautious, but I want to enjoy the beach,” said David Barnett of New York.
Man-of-war sightings have been reported along the Jersey Shore this season. They typically live in the open ocean.
“This is definitely not the norm for Jersey in the summertime. These are tropical species so when the Gulf Stream’s coming north it’s transporting all these guys off shore. If you get the right set of wind conditions and right set of tide, and the Gulf Stream is very close. They’re gonna get blown in,” Dr. Bologna said.
Dr. Bologna and his research team have been collecting siphonophores from beach patrols this summer. They cut pieces of the tentacles and other parts of the body to study their DNA.
“A Portuguese Man-of-War is a colonial organism, a whole lot of clones of the same individual that make up the whole unit,” he said.
The Portuguese Man-of-War drifts on the surface of the water with a balloon like float Dr. Bologna says the tentacles can reach up to 100 feet long but as it gets closer to the shore, the surf and waves start tearing the tentacles apart.
Even this tiny tentacle stings. Since he’ll be working with them so closely this summer, Dr. Bologna decided to find out what it feels like.
“It hurt. Not the worst that I’ve had. I was much more careful this time,” he said.
The professor doesn’t recommend beachgoers repeat that experience, so Harvey Cedars Beach Patrol is keeping a lookout for the man-of-wars.
“We’re very well informed at this point — what they look like, the potential hazards they are to the public. We’re transferring that information to the public via social media and our information boards on the back of our lifeguards stands on a daily basis,” Townsend said.
The Montclair State University research team says they’ll try to continue to pick up the Portuguese Man-of-Wars as beach patrols spot them along the coast.