26th Mar 2023 @ 9:45 am

A large colony of pyrosomes has been reported at Playa Chcia in Puerto del Carmen. The jelly-like organisms are harmless to humans.

Pyrosomes are small organisms that form larger colonies, which are cylindrical and drift in the ocean’s current.  The larger colonies are often called “sea squirts” or “sea pickles”. Pyrosome means “fire body”·, and the name derives from the way the organisms glow in the dark, sometimes causing spectacular displays of bioluminescence.

Local resident Barbarella Buchner reported to La Voz de Lanzarote  that hundreds of the strange creatures had been washed up on Playa Chica yesterday morning “and there were thousands more in the sea.”

Pyrosomes are entirely harmless to humans – good news for bathers during the hot weather this weekend. 

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