Sea gooseberry
- Scientific name
- Pukia falcata
- Phylum
- Ctenophora
- Class
- Tentaculata
- Sting-o-meter
- 0/5
- Diameter
- 1cm
Sea gooseberries are a type of comb jelly. Comb jellies have eight rows of ‘combs’ that they beat to swim along in the water. The combs refract light and generate iridescent rainbow patterns as they beat. Unlike most other sea jellies, comb jellies do not have stinging cells. Instead, they capture prey using microscopic, sticky harpoons.
The Sea gooseberry is small (1cm diameter), translucent and almost perfectly spherical. It sometimes washes ashore in huge numbers, coating beaches in tiny jelly-like balls.
Credit, Denis Riek.
