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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)
