The marine biologist Alan Deidun has shared the photo of a siphonophore – a giant, stringy jellyfish resembling barbed wire – that was recently spotted in Maltese seas.
Unfortunately, it’s now the time of the year when these delicate, gelatinous creatures of the deep to rise to shallower waters, posing some danger to swimmers who decide to take an early spring dip! In fact, a massive (three metre!) version of this creature was spotted in Gozo almost exactly this time last year.
If you spot this type of jellyfish while swimming, make sure to swim away quickly – its sting can be extremely painful.
Belonging to the same family as the deadly Portuguese man o’ war, according to Alan Deidun, this jellyfish possesses ‘thousands of individual tentacled zooids, all of which are intent of paralysing any hapless small creature which comes their way’ – ouch!
Have you ever seen one?