We’ve just returned from a wonderful trip to the Florida Panhandle beaches. While visiting Santa Rosa Beach we encountered several moon jellyfish (Aurelia aurita) in the shallow water and on the beach.
Moon Jellies can produce a mild sting, but are not dangerous. They can be hard to see in the water. Some were washing up on the sand. These jellies are about the size of a large dinner plate.
We came upon an arrangement of jellyfish in the beach sand where someone had been collecting them from the beach. These jellyfish were dying anyway, so no harm done, but I’d never seen this before (below).
The Florida panhandle does seem to have a lot more jellyfish than the peninsular Gulf coast. Several locals I spoke to agreed that in the panhandle, the month of June tends to be heavy on seaweed and jellyfish. They call the seaweed “June grass.” 2008, I understand, brought an extended June grass season.
Did you read my blog entry about the “dog flies” on Florida panhandle beaches?