Unusual visitors wash up on beach lined with tar, waste: Pretty Porpitas

MUMBAI: Porpita porpita, a

colonial marine organism

commonly known as blue button, has been making an appearance at the

Chowpatty beach

for the last two days, even as some parts of the beach have been getting smothered by tar balls.

Despite its outward appearance, the blue button is not a jellyfish but a colony composed of polyps specialised for catching food, defense, and reproduction. It floats freely , and is moved along by ocean currents and wind. “The centre is made up of a flat circular disc that keeps it afloat.It has many tentacles attached, that kill prey with their sting,“ explains veteran marine biologist B. F. Chhapgar.

Blue buttons inhabit tropical waters in the Indian, Pacific and Atlantic Oceans; and feed on small marine animals such as copepods, crab larvae and juvenile fish.They are usually sighted on Mumbai's shores at the onset of monsoon. “Koli fishermen call them phool and consider the sighting a signal to berth their boats,“ says marine conservationist Pradip Patade.