Thousands of jellyfish swarmed a Florida beach. Watch the invasion on drone video
A sea of ramen-like jellyfish took over a beach in Florida this week, and a photographer used her drone to catch the sight on video.
Amber Fletcher had recently arrived home from taking photos of sharks, dolphins and rays with a friend at Pensacola Beach, when they were alerted Tuesday afternoon about thousands of jellyfish swarming near shore.
Fighting the afternoon traffic, the Pensacola-based photographers rushed to Navarre Beach in their converted vans. Fletcher flew a drone from a parking lot, and friend Shane Dye jumped in the water atop a paddleboard.
Helping each other locate the massive gathering of sea nettle jellyfish, they spotted the creatures huddling by the pier. Fletcher said she knew a group of jellyfish was in the area but she didn’t imagine so many.
“It was absolutely mind-blowing,” the 34-year-old told the Miami Herald. “It doesn’t even look real.”
One of the photos Fletcher took shows Dye on his paddleboard completely surrounded by the aquatic invertebrates. Dye said that once he got up he realized he could fall into the water and die. Despite that, he took underwater photos from the paddleboard.
“It was definitely terrifying,” the 32-year-old said.
The duo said that within 45 minutes of their arrival, the jellyfish had mostly departed.
“I was excited to actually catch something that people do not normally get to see,” Dye said.
What caused the jellyfish swarm?
A jellyfish swarm of this size is not typical but also not surprising, William Graham, director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, told the Miami Herald.
“I’ve not personally seen these kinds of densities in this species, and I’ve done quite a lot of research on them over the past 30 years,” he said.
Also called smacks, swarms of Chrysaora chesapeakei, a fairly common species of the sea nettle jellyfish, often happen because males and females need to be in close proximity of each other to reproduce, Graham said. They can also take place in heavily fished ecosystems and due to climate cycles along the northern Gulf.
“These types of densities don’t last long, so this was special to come across it,” Graham said.
This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 9:55 AM.
