Mom- let’s look up Jelly Fish!

Each evening as we walk on the beach in Lincoln County – we find 10-20 large jellyfish. The boys have always been frightened of touching them, I think something from watching too many re-runs of Nemo. When we moved here, Nathan finally picked one up, and was so overjoyed with himself that the giggle in my heart still persists. That is another blogpost in itself, a list of all the things once feared now conquered. But back to Jellies.

This morning I did a lookup on JellyFish – and found that we have a type most likely to be Moon Jellies : The Seaside Aquarium posted this picture and post:

The surf got enormous on Saturday, bringing in the monster numbers of moon jellyfish (technically known as aurelia aurita).

The largest we have found is may be a foot in diameter.

For you old time Sunday School devotees – have you heard the song – “Bullfrogs and Butterflies – They’ve both been born again?” This morning the tune in our home is – Bullfrogs, Butterflies and Jellyfish – They’ve all been born again! or something to that effect after reading this post:

Those that sting. –
“Metamorphosis. Frogs do it. Butterflies do it. So do jellies. Jellies go through several different body shapes in the course of their life cycle. Adult, free-floating medusas produce eggs and sperm. Newly hatched larvae float in the currents until they find somewhere to attach. After a short time living attached to a hard surface, the polyp divides into many ephyrae, which peel off and float away. Ephyrae float and feed and grow until they are medusas, and the cycle starts anew.”

We are going to spend today – and maybe more days to come going through the new vocabulary on the “those that sting” site by the Newport Aquarium – researching the lifecycle, creating a sun catcher, and enjoying learning something new. I’ll keep posting what we find and our creations. 🙂

Here’s a little goodie for those of you who are already humming: