Sea Nestle

Sea Nestle, Chrysaora melanaster (獅鬃水母), is the largest jellyfish of the Arctic.

To study this kind of beautiful, but poisonous jellyfish, let us look how the following the authors, Kevin Raskoff & Russ Hopcroft described it on August 20, 2010:

Size:
• bell up to 60cm
• tentacles and lips may stretch more than 3 m

Color & Characteristics:
• Color: white, brown to orange stripes
• 24-32 long orange-red tentacles
• 4 long curtain-like lips
• 8 marginal rhophilia (sense organ), spaced between 32 lappets
• 16 dark brown/black radiating streaks on subumbrella between 8 stomach pouches
• tentacles can produce a nasty sting to humans

Habitat:
• Epiplegic (surface waters) to ~100 m depth
• Nertic (shelves) and over basins
• Commonly observed by divers or ROVs, its abundance to and size make it rare to capture in plankton nets
• Benthic form has not been observed in the Arctic, suggesting the species may be seasonally imported from the subarctic

Feeding:
• Diet includes copepods, larvaceans, other jellies, larger zooplankton and small fish

Life cycle :
• An obligate benthic phase, that strobulates (buds) to release ephra larvae
• larvae mature into adult body-form that releases eggs and sperm
• Fertilized eggs settle to seafloor to produce a small non-colonial benthic form
• Life span in Arctic unknown, possibly only one season

When looking at the photos here, you may find some small fish swimming alongside the jellyfish. The former seek shelter and protection from the latter. The fish may have a coat of sticky coating on their skin so that they are not harmed by the poison of the jellyfish. Another thing is that the fish are skilful swimmers. They can sway according to the movement of the jellyfish to avoid touching the stinging cells of the tentacles of the jellyfish.