Me and the TabbyMouse visited Melbourne, and drove down the Great Ocean Road. On the first beach out of Melbourne, though, we hopped out of the car to have a look at the beach… there was some washed up seaweed on the beach, as well as some of these weird transparent jelly blobs, which were actually quite firm. They didn’t appear to have any particular shape or size, but littered the beach all over.
We have no idea what it is, although the B&B owner thought it might have been something from a cuttlefish.
Any ideas?
Actually, it probably is. Scroll down to Moon Jellyfish. These things die, get battered around by the surf and then wash up on shore, looking nothing like a live jelly in the water.
Don’t dead jellyfish sting? I doubt someone would be able to hold it in their hand…I’ve seen people stung from stepping on a dead jellyfish that washed up on the beach.
ETA…I see from QED’s link some dead jellyfish are harmless. It sure looks like one to me.
Yep, almost definitely jellyfish. You see a lot of them washed up on the west coast of the UK after storms. You can pick them up (and throw them at other people, if you’re an obnoxious kid ) and they don’t sting - I think they’re the remnants of bodies of compass jellyfish. Apparently compass jellyfish can give a painful sting, but the ones that wash up rarely have any tentacles left attached to them.
) and they don’t sting - I think they’re the remnants of bodies of compass jellyfish. Apparently compass jellyfish can give a painful sting, but the ones that wash up rarely have any tentacles left attached to them.