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.
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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
Larger creatures take on the
purplish-colour, whereas younger animals take a lighter orange colour
By EDDIE WRENN - dailymail.co.uk
