Jiggling Jellyfish

An interactive guide to the jellyfish of New Zealand.

Jellyfish and other gelatinous planktonic creatures are a stunning and diverse group of marine invertebrates found all over the world’s oceans, from the surface coastal waters of every maritime country to the deep sea. The ‘true jellyfish’ (Class Scyphozoa) are well known, not only because some species sting, but also because of their rhythmic and graceful pulsating movements in the water and their beautiful shapes and colours. We hope you will enjoy reading and using this guide to help identify the most commonly encountered jellyfish and other jelly-like species of New Zealand.

The e-guide starts with a simple introduction to living jellies, followed by lots of information about the different species you might find, including a section on how to treat a jellyfish sting if you have an unlucky encounter. As new species are discovered and photographed, new pages will be added and an updated version of this e-guide will be made available.

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Cyanea rosea Quoy & Gaimard, 1824, Lion’s mane jellyfish.[Credit: Crispin Middleton, NIWA]  
Turritopsis rubra (Farquhar, 1895), Crimson jelly. [Credit: Crispin Middleton, NIWA]  
Physalia physalis (Linnaeus, 1758), Portugese man-o’-war; blue bottle; katiaho. [Credit: Chris Woods, NIWA]