Something in the water at the beach....?

Question

Today my boyfriend and I went to the beach. While we were in the water he was looking at his hand. I asked him what was wrong and he said he felt like a shell had cut him. Then while I was floating I was moving my arms in the water and I felt little pricks all over. I asked him if that was what he felt and he said yes. After a while we felt the pricks all over. We looked around but couldn't see anything in the water.

After we got out of the water and we were laying out I noticed something on my hand. It was a clear, hard, needle-looking thing. It was no more than a couple centimeters long. It didn't move and it didn't sting my hand. It had to have been what was poking us in the water.

Now me or my boyfriend had never seen anything like that. I was going to google it but I don't even know where to start looking for information.

Does anyone know what this was? It's not a big deal... I'm just curious.

Answer 1

maybe it was some kind of jelly fish.  they can't be seen because they are clear, and can  sting with tiny spines on tentacles.  

Some can be extremely dangerous, like the Portuguese man of war.  But most just hurt.

Answer 2

You were both stung by jellyfish.  Frequently, their tentacles are all but invisible and can be up to ten meters long or longer in some species.  Oddly enough, the jellyfish that stung you may have been eaten some time before you arrived.  When sea turtles eat jellyfish, they are very sloppy about it, and they leave a cloud of bits and pieces of tentacles behind them, all of which can sting until they get eaten by something else that feeds on them.