Trang

Chủ Nhật, 2 tháng 9, 2012

The brilliant colours of the lion's mane jellyfish

Deep purple... diver's photographs reveal the brilliant colours of the lion's mane jellyfish underneath Russia's arctic sea ice.
It is a freezing landscape of ice and snow.
But venture a few metres under the surface, as diver and photographer Alexander Semenov did, and you enter the dream-like world of translucent 'lion's mane' jellyfish.
The marine biologist Alexander Semenov has spent more than two years in the hostile environment of the ultra-remote White Sea Biological Station, on the western coast of Russia.
Whenever he gets down-time, he floats his way beneath the surface, to capture images of the beautiful, if occasionally painful, creatures of the deep.
Jelly and I scream: The jellyfish is beautiful, but deadly

Russian biologist Alexander Semenov's 'Underwater Experiments' series follows the colourful and majestic beauty of the lion's mane jellyfish ('Cyanea capillata')

T lion's mane jellyfish is the largest (known) species of jellyfish in the world - and has been seen to grow seven feet in length

The underwater photographer breaks through arctic sea ice dropping into a cold -2C water - although still warmer than the -30C world up above.

More...
Located in the north east Atlantic Ocean it is twice the size of Denmark and is only recently being explored by divers attracted by its crystal clear waters that allow divers to see an astonishing 40 metres underwater.
He has documented striking differences between these species who have evolved cut off from their cousins that live in warmer waters elsewhere in the world.   

One of the lion's mane jellyfish comes up to the surface: In general the jellyfish remain within 20 metres of the surface

Although these jellyfish pack a sting, generally they just cause a swelling pain their stings stings are not generally known to be fatal

Spectral beauty: Semenov takes a look at the jellyfish from below, seeing spectral beauty from the floating stingers
A lion's mane jellyfish can grow big - up to three metres wide at the bell and with tentacles up to 30metres in length.
Indeed, when 150 people were all stung in Wallis Sands State Park in New Hampshire in July 2010, the popular theory is that this was just the remains of one single creature, breaking up in the water and simultaneously stinging a lot of unsuspecting swimmers.
As a lion's mane jellyfish gets bigger, it gets more purple, with tentacles of red - and as it gets older, it can even start consuming other, smaller jellyfish.
But while they grow in the summer, the adults die off in the winter - possibly due to lack of resources or rougher seas.
But for most of their lives, they float, gently pulsating as they hunt for algae and plankton, and offering at least one ice-cool photographer a view that is difficult to forget.
The creatures journey through the icy chills off the northwestern coast on Russia, captured during Semenov's dives

The purple head of the jellyfish mane is surrounded by the whispering tentacles, which hunt the water for suitable plankton

Larger creatures take on the purplish-colour, whereas younger animals take a lighter orange colour

By EDDIE WRENN - dailymail.co.uk