All washed up, the gigantic jellyfish found on a beach
IT is not every day a stroll along the beach ends with an encounter with a deadly creature.
But for seven-year-old Ethan Akacha that is exactly what happened when he was on holiday with his mother and grandfather in the Inner Hebrides.
The small party came across a lion’s mane jellyfish washed up on the shore as they walked along Gott Bay beach on the isle of Tiree.
Ethan’s mother Fiona Akacha, from Edinburgh, said her son first noticed the huge jellyfish in the water.
She added: ‘It was very close to the edge of the water. In the time we were on the beach the tide had gone out and it was left on the beach, so we went over to have a look.
‘The four sections in the middle almost looked like a brain. It was very deep blood-red colours and oranges with still some tentacles visible, so we kept our distance.’
The 38-year-old physiotherapy assistant said her son was very, very interested in the jellyfish, adding: ‘It’s not often you see something like that.’
It was not until they returned home and were shown a photo of a lion’s mane jellyfish that they realised what they had been standing next to.
Mrs Akacha said: ‘Apparently it is a lion’s mane.
‘I reported it to the Marine Conserva- tion Society (MCS). Apparently they have got a very painful sting.’
The jellyfish can grow to more than 7ft in diameter and its toxic sting can cause muscle paralysis, leading to suffocation and heart attack.
Their 800-plus tentacles can reach around 100ft in length and even dead they can deliver a nasty shock.
The family’s encounter came days after experts warned the species, which has the most painful sting of any in the UK, appear to be on the increase this year. So far this year the jellyfish have been spotted off Aberdeenshire, the Hebrides, Orkney and Angus.
The MCS has advised beachgoers not to touch the creatures but to report sightings to the body’s National Jellyfish Survey.
Dr Peter Richardson, head of biodiversity and fisheries at the MCS, said: ‘There is evidence jellyfish numbers are increasing in some parts of the world.
‘We still know relatively little about jellyfish and what drives changes in their numbers, so reporting even a single one can help.’
‘Its tentacles were visible’ Warning over rising number of jellyfish in Scots waters Saturday’s Daily Mail