Whilst filming some Coasteering with the fantastic folk at Cornish Rock Tors at Port Quin yesterday evening we were surprised to come across this little fella, a Portugese Man o’ War.

Turns out after reading up on wikepedia that despite its outward appearance, the Man o’ War is not a true jellyfish but a siphonophore, which differ from jellyfish in that they are not actually a single creature, but a colonial organism made up of many minute individuals called zooids. Each of these zooids is highly-specialized and, although structurally similar to other solitary animals, are attached to each other and physiologically integrated to the extent that they are incapable of independent survival. Interesting stuff…