Orange-Tipped Sea Gooseberry
Description and Comments
sighting while diving at about 30 ft. water was a toasty 48 degrees. first time seeing this type of jellyfish in 3 years of frequent diving around Ketchikan.
Type of organism
Jellyfish
Quantity
1
Latitude
55.41
Longitude
-131.76
Condition
Alive
Comments
Thanks. Not an unusual
Thanks. Not an unusual species for that area, but which part was orange tipped? The tentacles?
I was using "Marine Life of
I was using "Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest" by Lamb and Hanby as a reference and chose that species based on the size. None of the other comb jellies in the book were described as being as big as the jelly I saw. What I saw was at least 6 in. long. I honestly didn't notice anything orange-tipped about it. I didn't notice any tentacles either. The rows of beating cilia were very obvious though especially when I shined my dive light on it.
OK, that makes more sense. So
OK, that makes more sense. So they are talking about the lobate ctenophore Leucothea. "Sea gooseberry" generally refers only to the spherical grape-sized ones like Pleurobrachia. Their mistake, not yours! If it looked vaguely Leucothea-shaped, but was transparent, then you were probably seeing Bolinopsis infundibulum, another lobate?
Yes, I was talking about
Yes, I was talking about Leucothea originally, but you're right, it certainly could have been a Bolinopsis. In my book it says that they get to 6 in., so the one I saw would have been a large one if that is what I was looking at.