popping photos capture the awesome scale of the world’s largest jellyfish, after an amazed beachgoer found the sea creature washed up on the Co Clare shore.
During an early morning walk on Fanore Beach, Liam MacNamara came across several lion’s mane jellyfish.
Coffee cup shows scale of creature washed up on Fanore Beach in ClareCredit: Credit: Liam MacNamara/Pen News
Liam MacNamara said he could see the huge jellyfish from a distanceCredit: Credit: Liam MacNamara/Pen News
The lion’s mane jellyfish sting can be nasty, but not fatalCredit: Credit: Liam MacNamara/Pen News
And they were so large that he could see them from afar.
He said: “I spotted them the minute I got to the beach, from the top of the walkway down.
“There was one in view and it looked quite big.
“Another three turned up not too far away during my walk and three more were about a mile away still in the water – I spotted them from the car as I drove to work!”
SHOCK SIGHTING
The jellyfish is said to be the largest in the world, with the largest specimen ever discovered trailing tentacles 120ft long and a seven-foot-long head known as the bell.
It can also deliver a painful sting; one study from Sweden’s University of Gothenburg described “pain that can last for hours or days.”
MacNamara estimates that the largest jellyfish he encountered had a bell that was four feet wideCredit: Credit: Liam MacNamara/Pen News
Jelly belly…gigantic lion’s maneCredit: Credit: Liam MacNamara/Pen News
Though the sting is not fatal, it can cause nausea, sweating, muscle cramps, and loss of consciousness.
One mass stinging in 2010, which stung around 150 people, is thought to have been caused by a single lion’s mane jellyfish that had broken up.