A pale jellyfish with long trailing tentacles, in estuaries and coastal water in summer rather than on the reef.
Bell to about 25 cm, pale and translucent, sometimes with radiating maroon stripes, trailing long thin tentacles and four frilled oral arms.
It is an estuarine and coastal animal rather than a reef one, appearing in numbers in warm months in bays and river mouths on the eastern seaboard. The tentacles are long, very thin and almost invisible in green water, and they detach and go on stinging, so the sting frequently comes with no jellyfish in sight. It is painful and not dangerous to a healthy adult. Vinegar on the skin, carefully lift off any tentacle that is still attached rather than rubbing, and do not use fresh water, which makes undischarged stinging cells fire.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
