{"id":91663,"date":"2025-08-23T17:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-23T17:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91663\/"},"modified":"2025-08-23T17:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-23T17:13:09","slug":"spanish-beaches-shut-after-venomous-blue-dragon-sea-slugs-found","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/91663\/","title":{"rendered":"Spanish beaches shut after venomous blue dragon sea slugs found"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n Beaches in the town of Guardamar del Segura, in southeastern Spain<\/a>, closed earlier this week after the discovery of two venomous sea slugs in the water, local authorities announced.\n <\/p>\n

\n Due to the appearance \u201cof the blue dragon (Glaucus atlanticus), and for motives of citizenry safety, we have banned all swimming on all of the municipal beaches until a new order,\u201d the Guardamar police force said in a post on Facebook<\/a> on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n

\n The blue dragon, colloquially named for its resemblance to the mythical creatures, is only about 3 centimeters (1.2 inches) long, but it feeds on venomous animals like the Portuguese man o\u2019 war before recycling and concentrating that venom, allowing it to paralyze prey 300 times its size.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \u201cContact with this marine animal can be dangerous and provoke painful burns on the skin,\u201d police said, adding that beachgoers should \u201ctake extreme caution and avoid direct contact with those that could appear on the sand.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n By Thursday, the ban had been lifted and swimming was allowed, but authorities still urged caution.\n <\/p>\n

\n The town\u2019s mayor, Jos\u00e9 Luis S\u00e1ez, told the public<\/a> to notify the authorities if they saw one of the creatures and to avoid touching it, even if wearing gloves. He advised anyone getting stung to rinse the affected area with saltwater and seek medical attention.\n <\/p>\n

\n With its sunny climate, rocky cliffs and plethora of beaches, the Mediterranean coastline surrounding Alicante is one of Spain\u2019s tourist hotspots.\n <\/p>\n

\n Blue dragons are rarely seen in the Mediterranean, being more often found in the temperate and tropical waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans where they are carried along by ocean currents and the wind.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facebook Tweet Email Link Beaches in the town of Guardamar del Segura, in southeastern Spain, closed earlier this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":{"0":"post-91663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}