A gigantic specimen of a new species of jellyfish has washed up on a beach in Tasmania, shocking the local family who found it and exciting scientists.
Stretching 1.5m wide, the unnamed species of lion’s mane jellyfish was found on a beach at Howden south of Hobart by the Lim family last month.
Lisa-ann Gershwin, research scientist with CSIRO’s wealth from oceans flagship, said it was among the biggest she’s ever seen in her career studying jellyfish.
“There is a bigger species in the Arctic, and it gets about 3m across the body, so there are biggers species out there, but not in Australia,” she said.
The species itself is one of three new species of lion’s mane in Tasmania and Gershwin is now working to properly name and classify them.
The discovery comes amid a recent increase in jellyfish in Tasmanian waters and around the world, but scientists don’t know what’s behind it – although they have suspicions.
Gershwin and her colleagues are looking into setting up long-term research projects to investigate the sudden proliferation of jellyfish.
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