The real sea creature behind the necklace people stop you to ask about
It is smaller than your thumb. It floats upside down on the open ocean. It eats the bluebottle, then keeps the sting for itself. Once you know its story you will want to tell it, and that is exactly what our necklace is for.
You have probably walked right past one
If you grew up near an Australian beach, you know the bluebottle. After a few days of onshore wind they wash up in their hundreds, little blue balloons trailing stinging threads, and everyone learns to step around them.
What most people never notice is what sometimes washes up with them. Scattered among the bluebottles, often no bigger than a fingernail, is an electric blue animal with feathery fingers fanned out like wings. It looks like something drawn for a fantasy film. It is real, and it has a name: Glaucus atlanticus, the blue dragon.
Lifeguards know it. Marine biologists love it. Almost everyone else walks straight past.
It lives its whole life upside down
The blue dragon spends its life floating on the surface of the open ocean, belly to the sky. It swallows a small bubble of air and holds it in its stomach, and that bubble keeps it afloat.
Even its colours are a trick. The side facing up is vivid blue, so to a seabird looking down it disappears into the water. The side facing down is silvery grey, so to a fish looking up it disappears into the bright surface. It is camouflaged from both directions at once.
It eats the bluebottle, then steals its sting
Here is the part nobody believes. The blue dragon hunts the Portuguese man o' war, our bluebottle, the same animal that has sent generations of Australian kids running up the sand in tears.
It eats the bluebottle, stinging cells and all, and it is not harmed. Instead it sorts those stinging cells and stores them in the tips of its fingers, concentrated and ready to fire. The thing that stings everyone else becomes its armour.
A practical note: if you find one on the beach, admire it but do not pick it up. Those borrowed stings still work.
- Name
- Glaucus atlanticus. Also called the blue dragon or blue sea slug.
- Size
- Usually 3 cm or less.
- Home
- The surface of warm and temperate oceans around the world.
- Diet
- Bluebottles, by-the-wind sailors and blue buttons.
- Defence
- Stolen stinging cells, stored in its fingertips.
- Camouflage
- Blue on top, silver underneath.
- First described
- 1777.
- Where to see one
- Australian east coast beaches after onshore winds, usually alongside bluebottles.
Most people have never heard of it. That is the point.
Think about the ocean jewellery you have seen. Waves. Shells. Turtles. Starfish. Lovely, and on every second neckline at the beach.
The blue dragon is different because it is specific. It is one real, extraordinary animal that most people have never seen, with a story most people have never heard. Wearing it says you are the kind of person who notices what everyone else walks past.
And it does something a shell never will. People ask about it. Then you get to tell them it floats upside down, eats bluebottles and keeps their sting. Nobody forgets that conversation, and nobody forgets who told them.
So we made one you can wear
We are nudibranch enthusiasts. We grew up watching blue dragons scatter across the sand after an onshore wind, and fell for those colours and that strange feathered shape long before we thought about making anything. Every Atlantica piece is designed in Australia with one rule: it has to look like the real animal, not a cartoon of it.
So the pendant shows the blue dragon from above, the way you would see one lying on the sand. A long body with blue down its centre, a fine pointed tail, and fanned fingers reaching out from either side, each one tipped with blue.
Even prettier in person
That is what our buyers tell us more than anything else. Opal does not sit still. It catches the light and throws it back as blue and green, the way shallow water moves over sand, so a photo only ever shows you one moment of it. One buyer put it better than we could:
AND THEN THE SUN HITS IT OMGGGGGAtlantica buyer
Choose your dragon
Three pieces, one creature. Choose either opal piece and we add a Silver Blue Dragon Necklace to your order free, automatically. Keep both, or give the silver one to the first friend you tell this story to.
Blue Dragon Opal Necklace
A 32 x 29 mm pendant in polished stainless steel, set with blue Bello Opal. Sits at the collarbone on a 17 inch chain, big enough to be noticed from across a room.
Opal and Gold Dragon Necklace
15 mm across, roughly the size of the real animal. Yellow gold over 925 sterling silver with Bello Opal, on an 18 inch chain. Shower, swim and sweat safe.
Silver Blue Dragon Necklace
The blue dragon in polished stainless steel with no stone, just the shape. Clean enough to wear every day, and free with either opal piece.
- Free delivery
- 30-day returns
- Afterpay available
- Free silver dragon with any opal piece
The fine print, honestly
Is the opal real?
It is Bello Opal, a lab-created opal. We use it for its strong blue and green colour play, which is what makes the pendant look alive when it moves.
How big is each pendant?
The Blue Dragon Opal pendant is 32 x 29 mm on a 17 inch chain. The Opal and Gold pendant is 15 mm across on an 18 inch chain, close to the size of a real blue dragon.
What if I do not love it?
You have 30 days to return it. If it is not even prettier in person than it is on this page, send it back.
How does the free silver necklace work?
Add the Blue Dragon Opal Necklace or the Opal and Gold Dragon Necklace to your cart and the Silver Blue Dragon Necklace is added free. One per order. Nothing to type in.
Do I pay for delivery?
No. Delivery is free.
Wear the dragon most people walk past
Somewhere on an Australian beach right now, a blue dragon is floating upside down with a stolen sting in its fingertips, and almost nobody knows it is there. You do now. Wear it, and you will never be short of a story.
P.S. Choose either opal piece and the Silver Blue Dragon Necklace goes into your order free. Two dragons, free delivery, and 30 days to decide.
Want more of the story? Read You have probably stepped over a dragon and Most necklaces are a shape. This one is an animal.
Photo credits: Sylke Rohrlach (Bronte Beach), CC BY-SA 2.0. Taro Taylor (Surfers Paradise), CC BY 2.0. Oskar Suth, CC BY-SA 4.0.