Rare Encounter with a Pelagic Jellyfish

Rare Encounter with a Pelagic Jellyfish, Maui, Hawaii

  A rare encounter with a pelagic jellyfish occurred off the southern coast of Maui last week. We spotted it while at anchor on the Safari Explorer. Someone spotted something colorful about five feet under the surface. We could see it was a big jellyfish but it was until I jumped in that I could see all the juvenile fish that were making the bell and tentacles of the jellyfish home. I only had a point and shoot underwater camera but it was good enough to capture these images of the rare encounter.

I had my friend Amy take a picture as I dove down next to the jelly to give a size reference