In South Florida these would be so abundant some years that they would wash ashore and dry up in the sun, the roasted tentacles forming a continuous brown strip for miles, mixed with smaller amounts of seaweed at the high tide point.
Punctuated every few feet by the intact blue balloons, which were fun for kids to step on and pop harmlessly once the dead tentacles had decayed like that.
Even then there were usually only a few floating around when you were out swimming in the Atlantic. It was not too difficult to avoid them, but occasionally you could get a small string of welts anyway, more likely from detached tentacles than direct contact with one.
But if the ocean got rough when there were significant numbers close to shore, the tentacles would break up into a million pieces and you couldn't swim without tiny little stings like pin-pricks all the time.
Punctuated every few feet by the intact blue balloons, which were fun for kids to step on and pop harmlessly once the dead tentacles had decayed like that.
Even then there were usually only a few floating around when you were out swimming in the Atlantic. It was not too difficult to avoid them, but occasionally you could get a small string of welts anyway, more likely from detached tentacles than direct contact with one.
But if the ocean got rough when there were significant numbers close to shore, the tentacles would break up into a million pieces and you couldn't swim without tiny little stings like pin-pricks all the time.