RETURN OF THE MAN O’ WARS.

1 THEY’RE BACK

Last year was completely free of man o’ war sightings. This year Bethany Nordstrom, an investigator at Dalhousie University who tracks jellyfish sightings throughout the East Coast, said she has received five reports of the creatures on Nova Scotia beaches. “They would definitely be one of the most harmful organisms in Nova Scotia waters — as they do pack a pretty potent sting,” she wrote in an email to the National Post.

2 FOREIGN SPECIES

The organisms are not native to Canadian waters, but can be blown north by unusual conditions. Dale Calder, an invertebrate expert at the Royal Ontario Museum, said Nova Scotia sightings of the creatures date back to at least the 1880s and are a “sporadic” occurrence in the Maritimes.

3 POISON TIPS

More commonly found in the U.S. south, the man o’ war’s bright blue tentacles are lined with nematocysts; essentially, tiny poison harpoons that stab into anything unlucky enough to float past.

4 ‘HOT KNIFE’

In 2008, Florida swimmer Cameron Moeller described a man o’ war sting as being “like a hot knife going in.” “The stalwart man o’ war may still sting you even weeks after having washed ashore,” reads a warning by the United States National Ocean Service. While the pain is so intense it can cause sufferers to pass out, it is rarely fatal, except in cases where victims suffer an allergic reaction to the venom.

5 STRANGE NAME

The creature’s unusual name comes from its resemblance to a man-of-war, a type of sail-powered warship first popularized by Portugal.