Beach and Strip Search

This is called a Portuguese Man of War. And is actually not a true jellyfish. Click for info.

Strip Search: We were in the ocean for no longer than eight minutes, when suddenly it became our ultimate goal to retreat as quickly as possible and strip naked—I could have cared less who saw! Something was in our swimsuits and the minor itching we had ignored moments before was quickly intensifying into painful little stinging sensations! We looked at each other, I saw the fear pass between us, and realized we were in some sort of weird trouble; we dashed out of the water. Upon our panicked strip session, we found these little meanies (see below) clinging to our skin. They'd been pinching and digging, trying to escape the confines of our swimming suits. I roughly brushed most of them off—a few I pinched off with great revenge. "What IS this thing?! Baby crab? Sea lice? Something poisonous? Are they burrowed beneath my skin? Will I get a rash, bloat up and die?..." Evidently Adam is a much faster stripper than I, so he ran around the car with only his towel on, threw everything inside, and we sped away in search of some kind of shower. We didn't go swimming again.

Here's a close up of one meanie on his back. I wasn't able to figure out exactly what these are, but a good guess might be a variety of amphipod, or copepod. I am guessing they are seasonal because we weren't bothered by them last year. Note to self, when no one else is swimming, maybe we shouldn't be either.