{"id":200091,"date":"2026-03-11T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200091\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:16:09","slug":"stinging-sea-slugs-washing-up-on-texas-beaches-experts-warn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/200091\/","title":{"rendered":"Stinging sea slugs washing up on Texas beaches, experts warn"},"content":{"rendered":"

Beachgoers headed to the Texas coast<\/a> for spring break<\/a> may want to keep a close eye on the sand. Researchers with the Harte Research Institute\u00a0say blue dragons, tiny blue sea slugs with a painful sting, are washing up again along Texas beaches<\/a> as spring winds push offshore marine life onto shore.<\/p>\n

In a warning shared online, the institute said researchers found about 20 blue dragons along a short stretch of beach along North Padre Island and Mustang Island.\u00a0The creatures, known scientifically as Glaucus atlanticus, are small enough to miss at a glance, usually measuring about 1 to 3 centimeters long, with dark and light blue coloring and wing-like appendages that give them their \u201cblue dragon\u201d nickname.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you see one, take a photo\u00a0\u2014 but look and don\u2019t touch,\u201d the institute \u00a0\u2014 which is part of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi\u00a0\u2014\u00a0said in a social media post.<\/p>\n

Blue dragons feed on Portuguese\u00a0man-o-war<\/a> and can store the stinging cells from their prey in their own appendages, then use them for defense, even after the animal has washed ashore. The institute and federal ocean officials say those appendages, called cerata, hold the stinging cells in a concentrated form, making the slug\u2019s sting especially potent.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management says blue dragons are ocean drifters that spend their lives floating at the surface, carried by wind and currents and kept buoyant by a gas-filled sac in the stomach.<\/p>\n

The species is commonly found in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, but federal officials say its range has expanded in recent years to places including the east and south coasts of Australia, waters off South Africa and the Texas Gulf Coast. According to BOEM, that expansion is likely tied to warming ocean temperatures and changing ocean currents.<\/p>\n

The institute\u00a0warned the slug usually show up alongside a larger mix of floating marine life that includes Portuguese\u00a0man-o-war, blue buttons, by-the-wind sailors and purple sea snails, a grouping oceanographers sometimes call the \u201cBlue Wave.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Loungers and swimmers alike should admire these animals from a distance and leave them alone. While some of the animals have a mild or no sting, BOEM and the\u00a0National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warn that Portuguese\u00a0man-o-war can also give a painful sting even after washing onto the beach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Beachgoers headed to the Texas coast for spring break may want to keep a close eye on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-200091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-texas","9":"tag-texas-headlines","10":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}