A purple jellyfish has washed up on a Sunshine Coast beach, thought to be a new species.
The brightly coloured creature of the deep surprised lifeguards early this morning at Coolum.
The unknown ocean dweller possesses long, thin tentacles and was alive when it was spotted, according to the lifeguard who found it.
“It’s still alive. We put gloves on and picked it up by head and put it in a bucket and we hope
someone from Underwater World will be able to identify it,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything like. It’s bright purple like a child’s toy. The head is the size of a dinner plate and the tentacles are about 1m long.
“We’re not sure if it has harmful stinging cells.”
A jellyfish expert said the bright, vivid colours could mean it is a new species of thysanostoma.
“It could be something new to science. The reason my antenna go up is it’s such a different colour from what we normally see, so it could also be different in other ways," Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin told News Corp.
“It’s not just a little purple – this sucker is seriously purple.
“We don’t know what kind of sting its gives. The lifeguards were right to take it (away) from the water. I applaud them because we might actually have discovered a new species, and they might have prevented someone from being stung.”
She also said the colour of the jellyfish could mean its sting could be extremely potent.
“The colour just screams ‘Don’t mess with me’.”
Righto! Who tipped rasb'ry cordial in the fish tank! Ay?
