Siphonophore

No actually, but it was the closest resemblance that I found initially. What I noticed was the pneumatophore, the "stack of bells" with holes on the sides, and very fine (finer than most human hair), bright yellow/orange tentacles. The hula skirt and rather thick looking tentacles on the physophora pics are making me think it was likely something else (unless those tentacles are more typically spread out very long and thin). It was about 5 cm long (excluding tentacles), and probably 10-15 mm in diameter. I am a sea kayak guide, and am very used to observing our common jellies, and showing them to clients (moon jellies, red eyed medusa, velella velella, lion's mane, fried egg, etc, but I saw at least 2 species yesterday that I have never seen before and have seen at least 2 species of salps in the last 6 months that I've not seen before.

The other one that I saw yesterday I got some very poor pics of. I will try to send them on in a few days when I get home. It was a long chain animal (about 2.5 metres in length and 3 cm in dia). At first I thought it was a piece of rope with growth on it, but when I tried to lift it with my paddle I cut a piece off. I scooped it into a jar for observation, but it was quite foreign to me, so I'll have to have a better look at the pics. Anyway, thanks for your interest, and your interesting site!

Thank you. I think Nanomia is more likely. I don't think the rope was Apolemia, but I haven't been able to look at these photos blown up yet. I'm wondering if Praya could be in that size range, otherwise I'm wondering about salps. I confess I find these guys pretty bewildering, so any help with big picture differentiation is appreciated. The Red Eyed Medusa I referred to is Polyorchis penicillatus, which is very common here in summer (sorry for the common name).