Mysterious clear ‘jumping sticks’ spotted in waters along Florida’s Space Coast baffle beachgoers

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Key points

• Translucent "jumping sticks" washing up along Florida's Space Coast have individuals asking one question: What are they?
• The unusual discovery of dozens of 1-inch moving creatures left one beach-stroller near the Indialantic Boardwalk mesmerized, FOX 35 WOFL documented.
• They were particularly active, and that's what caught my eye, Diana Duby informed WOFL.
• One person's chance encounter with the drifting, translucent organisms highlights how much remains unknown regarding Florida's coastal marine ecosystems.
• Duby initially thought the organisms could have been baby eels, and she wasn't far off, according to Dr.

In practice, the unusual discovery of dozens of 1-inch moving creatures left one beach-stroller near the Indialantic Boardwalk mesmerized, FOX 35 WOFL documented.

"They were flopping around. They were particularly active, and that's what caught my eye, " Diana Duby informed WOFL.

Duby initially thought the organisms could have been baby eels, and she wasn't far off, according to Dr. Todd Osborne, a marine life expert at the University of Florida's Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience.

They, in fact, fall under the same family of leptocephalus, Dr. Osborne informed WOFL.

"That little clear thing – that could be an eel, a tarpon, several different tarpon, bonefish, ladyfish, " Dr. Osborne remarked.

"They all fall under this class, the same order and they all have the same growth morphology as larvae, which is really cool."

For context, the mysterious organisms are so young that identifying their exact species is almost impossible without further investigation.

"We've been cataloging things in the ocean for a couple hundred years, and we still have no idea about what is going on out there, " Dr. Osborne informed WOFL.

In short, mysterious clear 'jumping sticks' spotted in waters along Florida's Space Coast baffle is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.