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| The jellyfish in question! |
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| ... viewed here from above |
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| ... and here as it floated in the shallows. |
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| The remote beach, with two hardy swimmers ... |
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| ... and the jellyfish being re-floated by a wave |
It is always exciting to walk along the tideline of a vast and (almost) empty beach, like this one at Glenbrittle on Skye, in the brooding shadowlands of the Cuillin mountains.
The jellyfish was on the tideline ten days ago, and was washed every so often by a 'ninth wave'.
I am not entirely sure about its identification (query Lion's Mane, which features in the Sherlock Holmes tale), so I will let you know when I hear from the Marine Conservation Survey, as I have logged this sighting - and you may like to log any sightings you encounter.
[ *** Update from the Marine Conservation Survey: confirmation that this is a Lion's Mane - and an upside down one at that! Thank you, Richard ***]
This was the only jellyfish we saw during our time in Scotland this year. You can read more about our time on Skye, Mull and Iona here. My previous Hebridean Medusozoan sightings (this time of Moon Jellyfish) are here.
I will soon be posting my holiday 2012 list of the wildlife we encountered. Meanwhile, you may be interested to read about ...
- a BBC report about a recent Portuguese Man O' War sighting in Cornwall (these are not actually jellyfish) ...
- Portuguese Man O' War in Ireland
- Fresh water jellyfish in the USA (National Geographic)
They are pretty and dangerous at the same time. I would not want to be swimming with them. Great shots of the colorful sea critters.
ReplyDeleteHi Caroline, I have missed some posts here, i will go backwards mostly because i want to see Batanes in Scotland landscapes. That jellyfish looks so big and yucky, is it dead? How come it doesn't decompose fast? I saw jellyfish here of that texture but blue!
ReplyDeleteJellyfish are weird things, aren't they? Your photos are excellent!
ReplyDeleteAndrea, I think the fact that it is upside down explains its appearance. We had some very stormy weather with gale force winds, so I guess it got blown off course. I assume its survival will have depended on whether or not the tide continued to come in sufficiently to re-float it completely. Thank you, Juliet and Eileen, for your kind comments, too.
ReplyDeleteWhat a stunning place. You've made me want to go there.
ReplyDeleteLittle mention in the latest post is there now. Hope people come your way! Hope you agree with my Dragonfly identifications by the way.....