Biologist Lizzie Daly was diving off the Falmouth, Cornwall coast of England when she and underwater cinematographer Dan Abbott spotted a rare barrel jellyfish the size of a human.
Daly, who hosts BBC Earth, took to Twitter to share a photo of the enormous creature. "We went diving in Falmouth yesterday to finish off #WildOceanWeek and came across this GIANT barrel jellyfish," she wrote. "What a way to finish off this marine wildlife adventure."
According to Huffington Post, the pair were finishing off their tour of the British Isles when they encountered the jellyfish, which Abbott said measured in at “about a metre and a half long, probably half a metre in width." He then took a photo of Daly next to the animal for scale and swam alongside the medusa for an hour.
“It’s the biggest jellyfish I’ve ever seen, in some ways I was shocked but not in a negative way, more awestruck," Abbott continued. “It was an incredible animal, we both came out the water completely mind blown from that experience.”
Daly described the creature as "breathtaking" and affirmed that she and Abbott had never seen a jellyfish of that size. "It's known to get this large, but I haven't seen one this big," Daly told CBS News. "Dan said he hasn't seen one this big either." She also confirmed that they are not a threat to humans and only have a "mild sting."
Commonly called "dustbin-lid jellyfish," barrel jellyfish are the largest species of jellyfish in British seas and are typically wash up onto local shores, per CNN.
Stumbling upon the enormous creature exemplifies the purpose of the duo's Wild Ocean Week, which raises funding for the Marine Conservation Society of the United Kingdom. “The thing that this whole week has been about is demonstrating that you don’t need to go to the other side of the world to see amazing marine wildlife," Abbott explained. "There’s plenty on our doorstep."
