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Jellyfish

Lion's Mane Jellyfish

Cyanea capillata

Cyanea capillata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Cyaneidae WoRMS 135301

Reference photos

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One of the largest species of jellyfish. It has a broad yellowish-brown to reddish bell, usually 30 to 50 cm across in British waters but recorded to 200 cm, trailing a mass of long, thin, hair-like tentacles in eight groups of 70 to 150 or more. It has one of the most painful stings of any UK jellyfish and can still sting long after it has stranded on the shore. Most common along the east coast of England and Scotland, and also common in the Irish Sea, with the larger animals about from June to September.

Depth

Coastal and upper epipelagic, drifting in the open water column; Baltic surveys netted it from 5-10 m down to 60-70 m, mostly deeper than 30 m

Size

Bell usually 30-50 cm across in British waters, recorded to 200 cm; the largest on record trailed tentacles 36.6 m long

Habitat

Pelagic in cool coastal seas: the medusa drifts in open water, the polyp stage lives on the bottom, and medusae often wash up on beaches

Behaviour

Drifts with the current and pulses its bell to swim; fishes by sinking slowly with its tentacles spread in a circle, and at times gathers in large swarms

Diet

I eat

Eats me

  • Leatherback turtles, for which it can be the main prey
  • Ocean sunfish, which feed largely on big jellyfish in the north-east Atlantic

Where you'd find it

Mostly seen in the North Sea, the Irish Sea and the waters west of Scotland, and only here and there elsewhere.

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.

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