[OC] Pacific Sea Nettle
Taken at the Vancouver Aquarium (Vancouver, Canada).
The Pacific sea nettle (Chrysaora fuscescens), or West Coast sea nettle, is a widespread planktonic scyphozoan cnidarian—or medusa, “jellyfish” or “jelly”—that lives in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, in temperate to cooler waters off of British Columbia and the West Coast of the United States, ranging south to México. The Pacific sea nettle earned its common name in-reference to its defensive, ‘nettle’-like sting; much like the stinging nettle plant (Urtica dioica), the sea nettle’s defensive sting is often irritating (possibly mildly painful) to humans, though rarely dangerous.