Meeting the Jellyfish

Is it a living being or is it just the water moving? The umbel shivers, the rhythmic pulsations increase… The jellyfish lives like a heart beating.

A demonic alliance of light and ocean, the jellyfish could only ever be a delicate creature. It is also mortally dangerous. Its tentacles are armed with venomous harpoons that release their poison at the slightest touch. The sharp points penetrate carapaces, pierce the hardest scales and dig deep, infusing the venom which destroys skin and paralyses the nervous system.

A young fish approaches. The jellyfish strikes. Frenetic movement ensues, followed by a final judder. The tentacle moves toward the orifice that serves as a mouth. The filaments stretch out once more in search of a new kill. Does it specialise in weak young fish? Absolutely not! Chironex fleckeri is ten centimetres of translucent gelatine and it kills unsuspecting swimmers every year.

Today, dragging their tangled tentacles behind them, hundreds of jellyfish are invading the cold waters off the Californian coast. Their opalescent crowns hypnotise us. Protected by our wetsuits, we lose ourselves amidst these incandescent creatures as they palpitate in the emerald green water.

François Sarano

Photo's credits : Richard Hermann /Galateefilms "Océans" Jacques Perrin