Sunday 7 February 2021

Having Posted Yesterday,

a swim through a lake with tadpoles taken over a number of years,


I thought today I would post a swim through latterly thousands of jellyfish, in Jellyfish Lake, in Palau, a small body of water inhabited with an estimated 13 million golden jellyfish, (Mastigias papua etpisoni), every morning the entire jellyfish population migrates from the east side of the lake to the west side, and then back again in the afternoon, causing a near constant flurry of activity as seen in the video. Unlike most jellyfish, this particular species has such a mild, almost undetectable sting that it can’t be felt on human skin, making it possible to swim through the school without being harmed. You can read a bit more about them in this fact sheet, unfortunately I can not find who the swimmer was, but what a experience it must be to swim amongst them.


2 comments:

jpo5626 said...

A few years ago while on vacation with friends at St. John’s Island in the Caribbean we decided to spend an afternoon snorkeling at Watermelon Cay. This is a small Cay that you can snorkel all the way around. Our group made it about 75% around and then swam into a huge school small yellow jellyfish. They were in our direct path to going back to shore so we slowly moved through the school without feeling any stings. It was an up close and personal experience that now I remember as a fond memory. At the time it was a real surprise! Your post was a good reminder of that special afternoon. Thanks
John and Alley

PattayaStan said...

Dear John and Alley, I am so glad you like=d the video clip, as for myself I have never swam through jellyfish, but many years ago as I was helping with a underwater film and report for the Philippine Commission on sports SCUBA Diving, whilst in El Nido Palawan we swam though literally millions of small fish, as they moved in the sunlight it really was magical, best regard, Stan and Diana.