Peanut Butter & Jellyfish
I sat down on a rock next to the Puget Sound in Western
Washington with my peanut butter sandwich and lo and behold a gelatinous
creature floated my way…
Tell
me Kids; what has no bones, no brains, no heart and no real eyes?
No! Not your sister or brother! Come
on Kids you can do better than that! They eat zooplankton, which includes other small fish and
crustaceans. They range in size
from 1/2 inch to more than 6 feet, some with tentacles reaching more than 100
feet long. Their predators are sea
turtles and some other fish. They
are mostly found in saltwater and sitting here on a rock next to the Puget Sound
I can see hundreds of them floating about.
They are more than 95% water, which makes them interesting little
critters, wouldn't you say? Here is an interesting fact for all you "Jellie"
fans! Jellyfish were around long before the dinosaurs back over 600 million
years! Wow!
I took another bite out of my delicious sandwich as I
remembered; some Jellyfish can sting and while wading in the Puget Sound one
summer I did get stung by one. I
couldn't get mad at it though as I was trespassing in the Jellyfish's natural
territory. But ouch!
It did sting! I like to
watch them from a safe distance now. If
you see one chances are there are more floating nearby. To watch them is a real treat as you wonder so many things
about them. Please don't allow your
friends to throw rocks at them. We
need to love all things and then we can enjoy learning from them. They are completely harmless when you watch them from a
distance. They are living creatures
and scientists estimate there are over 200 species of them out there.
That’s a lot of different types of Jellyfish!
Well Kids if you are not able to see the Jellyfish near your home, you
can see them in Public Aquariums too. Our
Oceans offer an abundance of creatures and the Jellyfish is certainly an
interesting one. I think I will
finish my last bite of my Peanut butter sandwich and keep recording the
Jellyfish as I see them floating calmly on the water.
What better way to spend a warm summers afternoon!
I'm glad I was able to share my clues with you and you were able to guess
the Jellyfish! Remember learning is fun!
Copyright
2000 by Author Patti Tricoli
