Visitors to the Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, USA, are discovering blue dragons during their trips.
They are not really flying nor are they breathing fire because of their name, but they are a very rare type of fish.
Hunter Lane, a 7-year-old from Mesa, Arizona, found 4 blue dragons within a couple of minutes on May 2, 2020, when he was on vacation with his parents.
Trey Lane, the father, told CNN that he has been vacationing at the seashore for 30 years, and claims that he has never seen any fish like this before.
During an interview with Trey, he said:
Hunter loves sea creatures and thought he had found a blue button jellyfish. After they picked it up in a beach toy he proclaimed to me that he had discovered a new species!
Blue dragons, or glaucus atlanticus, are tiny sea slugs.
They are only 3 centimeters big and can get up to 1 inch big.
They can only be found in the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans.
Leah, the mother of Hunter, said:
One washed up right next to my foot at some point, luckily I saw him and didn’t step on it. Hunter really wanted to touch it, I don’t blame him, I did too, as they look very soft and squishy. But we discussed that since we have no clue what they are we better not. After thinking about it he even said: ‘He might be like the poison dart frog mom, he is kind of brightly colored, which is a warning.’ Smart kid.
Many visitors to the seashore have seen the dragons, Jamie Kennedy, a spokeswoman for the park told CNN.
She said that the surge could be the result of a group of blue dragon fishes washing up the shore.