After the feeding jellyfish I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, it seems that our local weekend getaway destination (yes, just rubbing it in ) has a fair bit to offer at the moment. Last weekend we got to see a school of barracuda, tons of cuttlefish, and even a manta ray on Saturday afternoon.

But what really stood out from the lot was a jellyfish. The mother of all jellyfish, to be precise. The damn thing was huge. We could see it from the boat, a few meters from the surface. I free-dived down to grab a few shots, and a buddy followed down.



Just to give a feel for the size of the jellyfish, the diver in the back is 1.8m tall, and about 1m behind it.

Oh, and that photo cost me some massive stings to the neck, upper lip and ear
Lucky for me I got stung many times before and hardly react to it anymore

That's so cool! I can't wait to see a monster like that. That looks like Cyanea capillata var?... the ones here at the aquarium only get about 3 inches wide!
Great shot,
Wyatt

'CRIKEY'

Reminds me of when we were mid deco stop on a trapeze after diving the HMS Repulse. I had 15mins left after the dive and was duckin n divin millions off smaller jellies when my buddy squealed behind me, There in the distance was 3 giant specimens floating by. Not quite as big as that mother but huge all the same.

I've never seen so many jellies in all my life..

Lots of our fellow divers were washing their faces with vinegar after the dive because they were stung so much..You just couldn't escape the punishment.

Good shot Matt.

Dive safe

DeanB

Matt,

I really like that photo, it has character!!

But then maybe that is a result of the "suffering", may be true in photoing too??? No pain, no photo gain????

Thx for the pic!

Carol

Great shot, no question -- and you paid the price in stings! Still, to really know how big it was we need to know the focal length and distance to the jelly. If the focal length and distance are small, the jelly could be tiny, right?

Thanks for the kudos. The shot was taken with the Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye lens, about 1m or so away. To give you a better idea of its actual size, the tiny "dots" in the middle of its tentacles are actually juvenile trevallies seeking shelter there...

Matt, way to get a model in the shot for perspective, way cool! Ascending, I plopped one nearly this size on my head in Burma, but apparently not poisonous to humans, thank goodnness! It was more red in color than your nemesis here.