Biologist and BBC Earth host, Lizzie Daly, was with underwater cinematographer Dan Abbott, when the two spotted a rare barrel jellyfish the size of a whole human. Daly shared their insane discovery on Twitter, captioning the photo: "we went diving in Falmouth yesterday to finish off #WildOceanWeek and came across this GIANT barrel jellyfish. What a way to finish off this marine wildlife adventure." As Huffington Post reported, the duo was rounding up their tour of the British Isles, when they came face to face with the monstrous creature, which Abbott detailed was “about a metre and a half long, probably half a metre in width." After taking a photo of Daly next to the jellyfish as a size reference, they swam around with it for about an hour.
Daly said that it was "breathtaking" and they had surely never seen anything that size, with Abbot detailing: “it’s the biggest jellyfish I’ve ever seen, in some ways I was shocked but not in a negative way, more awestruck." He went on to reveal how "incredible" it was, saying, "we both came out the water completely mind blown from that experience." If you're wondering just how threatening this astounding creature is, Daly confirmed that they're actually not a danger to humans, and only have a "mild sting." According to CNN, this species of jellyfish are more commonly known as "dustbin-lid jellyfish," (fitting name) and are the largest species of jellyfish in British seas, usually washing up on local shores.
