Tourists and regular visitors at Girgaum Chowpatty beach were left stunned on Wednesday evening as almost over one thousand blue buttons had washed ashore. Marine experts say that people need not panic as these are not dangerous like the jelly fish or blue bottles ('Portuguese Man O' War) known for their venomous sting.
As per marine biologists, blue buttons or porpita porpita are not jelly fish, but colonies of polyps living on the surface of water. Their sting is not powerful and might only affect those with some allergies.
Pradip Patade, a marine enthusiast and one of the founders of Marine Life of Mumbai (MLOM), said he was informed about the mass stranding on Girgaum beach on Wednesday. When he visited the beach on Thursday he saw over 1000 such blue buttons. “Few regular walkers even called me up to check if it was something unusual, but I told them that such mass strandings of porpita is an annual phenomenon just before monsoons, and these blue organisms need not be feared,” he said. He added that the beach also had huge tar ball deposits, but the BMC had cleared a major portion of it.
Patade informed that the blue buttons are beautiful in appearance and their float or the the central part ranges in size. There are hydroids attached to the float that appear like tentacles and they feed on small marine species. “Traditional Koli fishermen regarded the sightings of these blue buttons on the inter-tidal zone or mass stranding on beaches as a sign of the onset of monsoons and begin bringing their boats ashore,” he said.
