Comb Jelly

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Day three diving in Loch Torridon. Wetter and windier.

A lovely dive in a bay just west of Kenmore, near another little skerry (Sgeir Dhubh ? black rocks again). It was on a lovely sandy slope so the light was bright. The seas here are alive with tiny fish, only a centimetre or so long, and with endless tiny hydroids and comb jellies. The central blob of this comb jelly is only about the size of a thumbnail, and the lighter parts have scintillae on them for swimming which ripple rainbow colours in the light of a torch. These ones have two main tentacles, each of which can trail a web of tiny hair-like tentacles to sift the water for food particles (some of the light spots in this photo will be edible to a comb jelly!). If disturbed, the main tentacles contract and pull in all the hairs ? presumably to protect them and transfer food to the mouth.

Only one dive today ? it was cold and wet on the RIB this morning, and landing at the jetty at lunchtime was getting tricky due to gale force gusts coming through.