Jellies

Below are the Jellies I’ve been lucky to find washed ashore on northern Oregon beaches (unless noted). I’ve organized my examples loosely after Lamb and Hanby (2005). I refer to WoRMS for scientific nomenclature; if I use common names, they’re my choice. The resources at the bottom of the page cover the jellies shown below and many more.

Let the jellies be upon you!

Cyanea capillata, lion’s mane jelly
Stranded lion’s manes are uncommon on the exposed beaches I visit; I can’t say I’ve encountered more than occasional fragments there. The examples below are from the quieter waters.

Lion's mane, Cyanea capillata, floating in shallow quiet water over a gravel substrate
Cyanea capillata, lion’s mane | Mayne Island
Looking down from a pier on a lion's mane floating near the surface.
Look for an eight-lobed bell | Orcas Island
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Phacellophora camtschatica, fried egg jelly
I come across fried egg jellies only infrequently, so finding an intact specimen is a treat. The big ones are impressive.

A decaying drifted jelly of wet sand
Fried egg Phacellophora camtschatica
Fried egg jellyfish, Phacellophora camtschatica washed up in the drift line.
Also goes by egg-yolk jelly
Looking down on 2/3 of a fired egg jellyfish. This one looks a lot like a fried egg with a broken yolk. On wet sand with bright sunlight.
Broken yolk
A kind of oblique view of the top of a whole, and quite fresh, fried egg jelly on wet beach sand.
Phacellophora camtschatica is a A good-sized jelly
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Chrysaora fuscescens, Pacific sea nettle
Sea nettles are one of the common large jellies found washed up on northern Oregon beaches.

Sea nettle, Chrysaora sp., washed up in the drift line in early morning sun.
Chrysaora fuscescens, Pacific sea nettle
Stranded jelly on beach sand.
A mostly intact jelly is a treat
Jelly fragment on beach sand.
Sea nettle fragments are more common
Jelly remnant on beach sand.
Mesoglea remnant
***

Chrysaora colorata, purple-striped sea nettle
An uncommon find in the northern Oregon drift line, purple-striped sea nettles usually have a limited range around Monterey Bay, California. However, I came across two near Cannon Beach, Oregon, in the spring of 2017.

Purple-striped jellyfish, Chrysaora sp., washed up in the drift line.
Chrysaora colorata, purple-striped sea nettle
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Aurelia, moon jelly
I imagine the examples below are Aurelia labiata, but jellies get around, so no promises. Along with sea nettles Chrysaora fuscescens (above), moon jellies are common large jellies frequently washed up on northern Oregon beaches. I included a video of live moon jellies at the Tennessee Aquarium in Aequorea and Other Tennessee Jellies.

Moon jelly, ,em>Aurelia sp., washed up in the drift line
Aurelia labiata, Pacific or greater moon jelly
Look for four roundish gonads
Stranded moon jellies can be the pinkest thing on the beach
Jelly fragment on sand with a bit of sea foam.
Fragments are the most common find
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Aequorea, water jelly
Aequorea, thin and transparent, are easy to overlook. The two below are only about 3″ (7.6 cm) across. I floated the one on the left in a finger bowl to get a better look.

Water jelly, Aequorea sp. in a finger bowl.
Aequorea, water jelly
Reflections on wet sand of the forest above, and the sun, sky, and a little white cloud
Aequorea reflections
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Stranded red-eye medusas, probably Polyorchis penicillatus, can be abundant, but they aren’t easily noticeable outside the swash zone. To get a good view, float them in a finger bowl (image on the right), or be creative and float it in the bottom of an upside-down half-pint canning jar (image on the left). I featured Polyorchis (if that’s what these are) in Red-eyed medusa, Polyorchis penicillatus.

A little bell jelly, probably Polyorchis penicillatus floating in the bottom of an upside down half-pint jar
A little bell jelly, probably Polyorchis penicillatus
Close up of a jelly in a clear glass finger bowl
Polyorchis | A fairly common find in the fresh drift
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Halimedusa typus
Well, I think that’s what these little medusas are. I recall seeing them only in October 2022, when they washed ashore in large numbers. The iNaturalist page for Halimedusa typus shows a few other examples.

Small jelly resting watery film on sand
Halimedusa typus stranded in the swash zone
several small jellies floating in a finger bowl.
Floating in a finger bowl
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Velella velella, by-the-wind sailor
Velella beachcast events can impact the character of a beach for days at a time. I illustrate one of these events in The Drift Line’s Getting Slippery on the Northern Oregon Coast: By-the-Wind Sailors Wash Ashore in Great Numbers. Among freshly stranded Velella, look for blue buoy barnacles.

fresh by-the-wind sailor Velella velella in the drift line.
By-the-wind sailor Velella velella
Blue buoy barnacles attached to Velella velella
Blue buoys Dosima fascicularis on a spent by-the-wind sailor
Carpet of drifted Velella velella


References

Gotshall, D. W. 2005. Guide to Marine Invertebrates, Alaska to Baja California 2nd Edition (Revised). Shoreline Press.

Harbo, R. M. 2011. Whelks to Whales: Coastal Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest. 2nd ed. Harbour Publishing Co.

Kozloff, E. N. 1993. Seashore Life of the Northern Pacific Coast. 3rd ed. University of Washington Press.

Lamb, A. and B. P. Hanby. 2005. Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest. Harbour Publishing.

Sept. J. D. 2019. The New Beachcomber’s Guide to the Pacific Northwest. Harbour Publishing.


Online Resources

Biodiversity of the Central Coast’s Cnidarians and Ctenophores. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Friends of Netarts Bay WEBS’ Hydroids, Jellies, Sea Anemones and Comb Jellies. Accessed March 22, 2023.

It’s worth scrolling down to Cnidaria in Common Sea Life of Southeastern Alaska: A field guide by Aaron Baldwin & Paul Norwood. Accessed March 22, 2023.


Selected Accounts

Cowles, D. (2004). Velella velella (Linnaeus, 1758). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Cowles, D. (2006 as edited). Aurelia labiata (Linnaeus, 1758). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Cowles, D. (2006). Aequorea victoria (Murbach and Shearer, 1902). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Cowles, D. (2006). Polyorchis penicillatus (Eschscholtz, 1829). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Cowles, D. (2007). Cyanea capillata (Linnaeus, 1758). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Cowles, D. (2010). Chrysaora fuscensens Brandt, 1835. Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.

Piazzola, C.D. and L. Hiebert. 2015. Polyorchis penicillatus. In: Oregon Estuarine Invertebrates: Rudys’ Illustrated Guide to Common Species, 3rd ed. T.C. Hiebert, B.A. Butler and A.L. Shanks (eds.). University of Oregon Libraries and Oregon Institute of Marine Biol- ogy, Charleston, OR.

Smith, C. R. 2002. Phacellophora camtschatica  (Brant, 1835). Invertebrates of the Salish Sea. Rosario Beach Marine Laboratory. Accessed March 22, 2023.


I updated this page on March 22, 2023.