Angthong Marine Park / Samui - Jellyfish

[dfdgfdfdgs]

I kayaked about 16km around AngThong a few days ago and just wondering if anybody had any idea what jellyfish these are?  One in particular looks like one hell of a stinger, the tentacles were 2-3 metres long.  I didn't see any box jellyfish but then it's probably harder to see them from the surface.  I saw 7-8 in total, half big ones about the diameter of a toilet seat lid, and half smaller ones about the diameter of a sideplate, but the small ones still had really long tentacles.

I kayak a lot in various places in Thailand and this is by far the most (presumably dangerous) jellyfish I have seen in one place.  I've seen huge blooms of jellyfish before at Koh Chang, but they're the harmless cute looking ones that you can hold on your palm.  Could be seasonal?

 

90% of the jellyfish were clustered around the areas marked X on the below route map.  Areas marked HQ are park headquarters or ranger stations.  I also saw one very large turtle near the Xs that came up for air, possibly attracted by all the jellyfish?

 

 

[PoorSucker]

Looks like this one.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysaora_quinquecirrha

 

[cosmosis]

While the clear looking jellyfish is probably a Chrysaora_quinquecirrha the orange coloured one is more probably a Lion's Mane jellyfish, the latter has a vicious sting, although supposedly not native to the Gulf of Thailand,  have personally encountered them on many occasions in both Ao Tok bay side and Pu Yai Pung's side of Koh Taen island, opposite Thong Krut on the southern tip of Koh Samui.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion's_mane_jellyfish

[dfdgfdfdgs]

There are 3 separate jellyfish in the photos by the way.  the one that is pink, the big orange one, and the small orange one.

 

I reckon the lions mane is a good shout for the big orange one.

 

 The tentacles of larger specimens may trail as long as 30 m (100 ft) or more, with the tentacles of the longest known specimen measured at 37 m (120 ft) in length. While unusually long — longer than a blue whale — this measurement has earned it the status of one of the longest known animals in the world.^[2]

 

[csabo]

You're gonna need a bigger net... 

 

[khunPer]

Saw and photographed this one a year ago – last October – at Samui...

 

 

...and posted my research about in another ThaiVisa thread about jellyfish:

 

Quote

The weird jelly-thing looked like the so-called "Red fire man" (rød brandmand) from my childhood's Danish beaches – "fire", Danish "brand", refers to that the sting "burns on the skin", "man" or Danish "mand" could refer to only male species, mening they can reproduce without use of females. I remember it as something really nasty to get in close contact with (talk from extremely bad experience), but probably not that poisoning after all for grownups.

 

Google is my friend, and our "Red fire man" has an English name, "Lion's mane jellyfish". It's a very Northern, almost Nordic "lion", which is »common in the English Channel, Irish Sea, North Sea and in western Scandinavian waters south to Kattegat and Øresund. It may also drift in to the south-western part of the Baltic Sea (where it cannot breed due to the low salinity).« It's also known as the "Giant jellyfish" and »is the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans.«

 

OMG, "giant" means giant: "The largest recorded specimen found, washed up on the shore of Massachusetts Bay in 1870, had a bell with a diameter of 2.3 metres (7 ft 6 in) and tentacles 37.0 m (121.4 ft) long."

 

But here comes the interesting part: »Similar jellyfish, which may be the same species, are known to inhabit seas near Australia and New Zealand.«

 

Could it – even without DNA testing – be a Lion's mane jellyfish or similar thing..?

 

If so, then Wikipedia says:
»Sting and human contact
Most encounters cause temporary pain and localized redness. In normal circumstances, and in healthy individuals, their stings are not known to be fatal. Vinegar can be used to deactivate the nematocysts, but due to the large number of tentacles medical attention is recommended after exposure.

On July 21, 2010, around 150 people are thought to have been stung by the remains of a lion's mane jellyfish that had broken up into countless pieces in Rye, New Hampshire, in the United States. Considering the size of the species, it is possible that this mass incident was caused by a single specimen.«

 

Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

 

[fakename]

I got these stings, off Jontien beach, a few years ago. I didnt reconize the jellyfish, but the burning lasted several months, and itching lasted more than two years! At the same time, there were small jellies, maybe one cell, and felt like small needles, so now im more careful.

[realenglish1]

Yes this is the Ugga Bugga Jelly fish very dangerous   If you are swimming and have shorts on the have this habit of hiding in your pockets Usually they as seen in groups with family members close behind 

sucking all the cash out of your wallet

Much like Isan woman do in Thailand

 

The best way to avoid them is don't go into those dangerous waters and you should be ok 

 

[ksamuiguy]

The Turtle you saw was probably eating the jellies, one of their staple foods.

[MyFriend You]

3 hours ago, ksamuiguy said:

The Turtle you saw was probably eating the jellies, one of their staple foods.

.............along with all the plastic bags floating around, sorry, couldn't help it, had to get that 'sting' in.