Lion's Mane Jellyfish

Lots of rain this morning but it cleared up this afternoon for the second success of our week. :-) A visit from an electrician who did some small electrical jobs that have been waiting. H is happy. The electrician who comes from Saltspring Is. would have come the week before we left for Seattle but he ordered 2 parts and only one got sent. (this is so typical of island living......! one has to be patient. Island Time. ) but we shared him with a neighbor who also had some jobs.

I got some very fine time for myself in the studio with progress on several projects and then took a break on the beach where there are always many of these lion’s mane jellyfish washed up on the shore this time of year. They get their name from their stinging red tentacles. (Here is a picture of one floating upside down.) . The largest coldwater jelly fish, (above 42degrees N) they can have a diameter of 8 ft. with tentacles as long as 30 ft in the far north but this one is maybe 18 inches, and just barely floating in shallow water. I think their color in the water is beautiful and blipworthy. They usually live about a year in shallow depths in the open ocean but tend to drift in with tides or currants this time of year dead or dying. They act as floating oasis for certain fish and shrimp and are eaten by seabirds, large fish and other jellyfish. They eat zooplancton and small fish. One can get stung even when they are dead, and even from small bits that cling to anchor chains etc. Not life threatening, but annoying. (says I who have never been stung...our grandkids are reluctant to swim when they see lots of them in the water, but they do like to play with them with sticks.....) I am actually not sure what happens to them here - I have never seen creature eating them while they are lying on the beach.