A picture snapped by a freediver in Byron Bay, has shown a small fish, living and swimming inside a jellyfish, has gone viral and amazed biologists around the world.
Fish alive in a jellyfish
Tim Samuel was diving off the east coast of Australia at Pass Beach, Byron Bay, (a small but popular coastal town in New South Wales) and like many other before him was happily taking pictures of the wonders he was discovering. He uploaded some of his favorite pictures to the photo-sharing application, Instagram. However, where his story differs from so many, is that he woke up to find his picture had gone viral and top biologists around the world were talking about his post.
DiscoverOcean, a popular Instagram account (with over half a million followers), focusing on marine biology shared his original picture, and overnight it came to the worlds attention.
His photo clearly shows a small fish, swimming along, but inside a transparent jellyfish. Samuel in a commentary of the picture, “he was trapped in there but controlled where the Jellyfish was moving.” He has said that he was there to take photographs of turtles, but came across this amazing sight when swimming back to shore.
‘Unique and Rare’
He followed up the original post with another shot he had taken and added, “It is crazy how much attention this little guy is getting. When (his friend, Franny) and I stumbled upon it we knew we had found something special, but had no idea just how unique and rare this sighting was. I’m completely blown away by all the attention it is getting from all over the world.”
Catching a ride or dinner being saved for later?
Marine biologists have admitted they have never seen anything like it before.
A fish biologist from the Center for Marine Science at the University of Queensland, Ian Tibbets said, “It’s difficult to tell whether disaster has just struck, or whether the fish is happy to be in there.” He suggested that the fish may be a young trevally, a species that often looks for protection among the stingers of jellyfish and added, “my guess is that it is probably quite happy to be protected in there.”
