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Barrel jellyfish is a very beautiful jellyfish! and this one in the video is really big, probably the diameter exceeds 50/55 cm, as can be seen from the proportions of the undersigned’s hand. It is one of the classic jellyfish of the Mediterranean Sea, perhaps the most common to encounter. Here on intotheblue.it we have published it numerous times.
Giant Barrel jellyfish – Polmone di mare gigante – Rhizostoma pulmo – www.intotheblue.it
This specimen, as well as being large, is probably also old judging by the marks it bears. Holes can be seen on the umbrella, probably caused by fish bites. Let us remember that jellyfish are an important source of food for cetaceans, dolphins, sea turtles and many species of fish.
Giant Barrel jellyfish – Polmone di mare gigante – Rhizostoma pulmo – www.intotheblue.it
Rhizostoma pulmo (Macri, 1778), also known as sea lung or barrel jellyfish, is a scyphomedusa of the Rhizostomatidae family.
Distribution and habitat
It is a pelagic species, that is, it lives in the open sea, widespread in the eastern Atlantic Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, the Adriatic and the White Sea.
Giant Barrel jellyfish – Polmone di mare gigante – Rhizostoma pulmo – www.intotheblue.it
Description
This jellyfish has a hemispherical hat that is opalescent but tending towards transparency, with blue-purple fringed edges. Under the hat the body is called the manubrium and is composed of eight extensions of curled and lumpy white-transparent tissue, from which eight elongated, fringed and semi-transparent tentacles emerge.
Giant Barrel jellyfish – Rhizostoma pulmo – www.intotheblue.it
Young specimens tend to have a more transparent color, adults much more opalescent. The common name of sea lung is due to the typical throbbing movement made by the jellyfish to move. The dimensions are noteworthy: being able to reach 50–60 cm in diameter and 10 kg in weight, it represents the largest jellyfish in the Mediterranean. In 2019, a person-sized specimen was documented in the Cornish seas.
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizostoma_pulmo
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