The Common Jellyfish is also known as the Moon Jellyfish or the Saucer Jellyfish. It mainly lives out in open waters, but it is regularly forced closer to shore by tides and currents. Many Common Jellyfish can be seen stranded on our beaches.

The Common Jellyfish lives up to its name by having a body made up of ninety percent jelly. It looks almost see-through even though it has a bluish tint inside its jelly body. The Common Jellyfish takes the position of a bell when it swims in water and sometimes catches prey underneath its bell-shaped body by sinking into the water. Most of the time, however, the Common Jellyfish catches plankton by using a sticky mucus which covers the whole of its body.

Sometimes the Common Jellyfish uses threadlike stinging tentacles under the rim of the bell to catch prey. The sting may harm prey, but it doesn’t generally harm humans because the force of the sting is not powerful enough to penetrate our thick skins. Common Jellyfish swim by pulsating the rims of their bell-shaped bodies and by contracting the muscles around their bodies. However, they often just drift with the currents of the water and become part of zooplankton.

Sponsored by:  Poppy Lambert, Bletchingdon