A bright purple jellyfish has been discovered on a beach in Queensland, Australia. Although there are eyewitness reports of the creatures dating back to 2008, the species has never been officially documented in Australian waters before now and could well be new to science.

With its metre-long arms and a huge purple bell, jellyfish scientist Lisa-ann Gershwin from the CSIRO, Australia’s national research agency in Brisbane, says she’s never seen anything like the specimen that was found on Coolum beach on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland last month.

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.

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 are always 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.

Changes in jellyfish activity are an important indicator of the state of the environment, with spikes possibly caused by agricultural run-off, global warming and over-fishing, Gershwin says. “They’re like the canary in the coal mine.”

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.”

Source: www.newscientist.com