Pacific Sea Nettle Chrysaora fuscescens

The Pacific Sea Nettle, also called the West Coast Sea Nettle, is a jellyfish native to waters of the Pacific coast from Canada to Mexico. Despite its common name, another separate species, the Japanese Sea Nettle, has the scientific name C. pacifica.

The bell of the jelly is a golden colour with a reddish edge and can grow to nearly a metre across (but usually half that). The shorter, frilly feeding tentacles and 24 maroon, stringy stinging tentacles can extend for 4-5 metres and cause a painful sting. Juvenile cancer crabs sometimes hide in the tentacles for protection.

Diet is zooplankton, crustaceans, molluscs, small fish and other jellyfish. Like other jellyfish, they have a multiform life cycle of egg, planktonic larva, polyp, ephyra and medusa.