Could Australia have had schools of mysterious, technicolour purple jellyfish swimming off its shores all along without anybody noticing? After one such creature, previously unknown in Australia – and probably to science – washed up on a Queensland coast last week, jellyfish scientist Lisa-ann Gershwin has received a string of reported sightings dating back to 2008.
With its metre-long arms and a huge purple bell, Gershwin from the CSIRO, Australia's national research agency, in Brisbane, says she's never seen anything like the specimen that washed up on Coolum beach on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland on Wednesday morning.
Some features, including the arms covered in thousands of tiny plankton-eating mouths, meant Gershwin could immediately determine it was a member of the Thysanostoma genus. But those known to live around Australia are tiny and beige.
"This is huge. And it's vivid technicolour purple," she says.
Where there's one
Gershwin has some reports in German from the 19th century, reporting large specimens from the same genus found in the Red Sea and near the Philippines. But she says the parts she has translated so far don't mention that the creatures are purple, so she suspects this is a new species.
Where there's one jellyfish, there must be more. "Wouldn't that be spectacular," says Gershwin. "Can you imagine anything more amazing than a school of technicolour purple jellyfish with long oral arms."
Members of the public have now contacted her, reporting 10 sightings – four with photos – of similar jellyfish on beaches going back to 2008. She says the big question now is: are these locals that have been in Australian waters all along, or are they just starting to move there from elsewhere? If they're moving, or increasing in numbers, that could be a sign that the ocean environment is changing.
Canary in the coal mine
Changes in jellyfish activity are an important indicator of the state of the environment, with spikes possibly caused by agricultural run-off, global warming
Moreover, spikes in jellyfish numbers can themselves worsen the environment by encouraging carbon dioxide release from the oceans and because the jellyfish eat, and compete with, fish and larvae.
"We are certainly seeing a lot of jellyfish activity all around Australia," Gershwin says. "But whether that's a blip or a new normal we don't know yet because it's only been a few years of intense jellyfish activity. But believe me we're onto it."
If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.
