Jellyfish

[misterlizard]

Just wondering if anybody out there every worries about jellyfish when they're diving? I surf throughout the year here in England, and twice I have surfaced from duck-diving a wave to find a jellyfish on my head. Not nice - painful stings but nothing life-threatening!
I often see jellyfish when I dive around the shores here, most are only small but every now and then I see some huge ones, about twice the size of a soccer ball. So when I'm cruising along the surface preparing to get back down there I often find myself worrying about swimming headfirst into one. With the kind of jellies we have here that would mean a painful sting which would go away after a day or so, but in some of the places some of the DB members dive in there are some really nasty jellyfish about.
Any thoughts?
Tom.

 

[squip]

Were I dive(Westcost of Sweden) we have the lions mane, it stings a bit but will go away after a day or so.

Maybe the same jellyfish your talking about...

http://www.vattenkikaren.gu.se/fakta/arter/cnidaria/scyphozo/cyancapi/cyancae.html

 

[Beaky]

50 cm, but in Arctic waters har examples of about 2 m been observed

Wow, glad the waters here in Sweden aren't "Arctic" (Or are they?).

But I did see one this summer with tentacles more than 5 meters long! The "body" wasn't that big, maybe 40 cm, but the tentacles seemed to go on forever! I found it near the bottom at around 19 meters depth and I wish I had had a camera with me, because it was by far the worst jellyfish I have ever seen!

// Johnny

 

[69link]

I've never seen as many jellyfish (Lions mane) before as I saw this summer. They were litterarly everywhere, and ofcourse I got stung several times on my mouth and cheeks

I usually try to avoid them, but suited all over its basically only the mouth/cheeks that can get stung. When ascending from a dive I try to relax as normal and try no to bother too much about them. Also I place my right hand over my mouth to cover the worst.

 

[Seal]

I dive alot in Norway, and have seen Jelly's about 1m head with 10-15m of tentacles!

But the books say they can get bigger, anyways i can't stand getting stung, and it usually result in aborted dives. I have seen people wearing full face masks. Where can you get one of those?

 

[ARDEN]

I was freediving in Cabo San Lucas when I was 15 when I ran into the invisible tentacles of a Portuguese manowar. A hurricane had passed through a few days before so the animal had been torn into pieces and as a result only the tentacles remained giving me no warning. It was by far the most painful experience of my life and nearly drowned me. I live in the Los Angeles area and often see large jellyfish but have never been stung. But just a warning to all just because you cant see them doesent mean they can't sting you.