FishSpotterby
Back to the feed

Jellyfish

Compass Jellyfish

Chrysaora hysoscella

Chrysaora hysoscella (Linnaeus, 1767) · Pelagiidae WoRMS 135304

Reference photos

Tap a photo to enlarge.

A flattish pale bell marked with dark brown V-shapes radiating from the centre like the points of a compass. Trails long thin tentacles and four frilly arms. It stings, so look but don't touch.

Depth

Mostly near the surface, diving down to 26.9 m; uncommon below 30 m

Size

Bell up to 30 cm across; recorded range 3-43 cm, median about 15 cm

Habitat

Pelagic in cold to temperate coastal waters over the continental shelf; its polyps have been found on empty bivalve shells on the North Sea bed

Behaviour

Swims by pulsing its bell but is largely carried on the currents; solitary, and makes extensive vertical movements through the water column

Diet

I eat

  • Small planktonic crustaceans, including copepods such as Acartia and Centropages
  • Decapod larvae and other small marine invertebrates
  • Zooplankton generally, subdued by stinging cells on the tentacles and passed to the mouth

Eats me

  • Leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea)
  • Ocean sunfish (Mola mola)
  • Parasitic amphipods (Hyperia species) that live on the jellyfish and eat its gonads

Where you'd find it

Found around most of Britain and Ireland, though less often in the waters west of Scotland.

ChannelCeltic SeaNorth SeaIrish SeaW of IrelandW of Scotland
Often seenNow and thenWhere PEBL filmsBased on marine survey records (OBIS). Blank seas can mean nobody has looked there, not that the animal is absent.

Sources

Open-access references behind this page. Every statement on this page was read out of one of them; anything that could not be traced to a source was taken off the page rather than left standing. Each link was checked on the date shown, and confirmed then to be about this species.

Name Compass Jellyfish in a clip to add it to your collection.

Spot it in the feed