I woke early this morning, made coffee, and went up on deck to enjoy the sunrise. As I was sipping my coffee, watching the ducks swim by and the geese land noisily out on the creek, I looked down and discovered that I was being invaded by Cnidarians – a.k.a. Jellyfish. So, I grabbed the GoPro and started shooting ;-). I don’t have a monitor for my action camera as it was not purchased for “point and shoot” use. To get these photos without immersing myself in the 8°C (46°F) water, the GoPro was mounted on the end of a long pole allowing me to stand on the dock. Because of this, framing and focus was tricky to say the least! When the water warms up I’m going to try this again on SCUBA, so getting good shots should be a lot easier. Not getting stung will be the tricky part!
The video below shows three of the best clips. Note that the white particles floating by the camera are zooplankton, not trash. If you look closely you can see some of them scoot around. Though the focus is a bit soft, my favorite is the second clip, a bioluminescent Pink Comb Jelly Beroe ovata – which is not actually a jellyfish but a Ctenophore. The first and third clips are of Sea Nettles Chrysaora quinquecirrha which are true jellyfish and the bane of swimmers. The Sea Nettles eat the Pink Comb Jellies and the larger zooplankton.
Location: onboard Sérénité, Back Creek, Annapolis, Maryland, United States, North America
Altitude: 0.25 m