USVI-On-Line

My wife and I were snorkeling around the point between Salomon and Honeymoon Beaches last week. There were these creatures floating in the water that I initially thought were jellyfish. They were almost perfectly clear and about 2" in diameter. I didn't notice any tentacles, but it was hard to see. I also didn't notice them propelling themselves; it mostly looked like they were floating. I'm certain I come in contact with many of them, but you could hardly feel them, and there was no "sting" at the time. Any ideas?

I see lots of comb jelly fish in the waters around STJ. Google "comb jelly fish" to see if maybe that was what you saw.

Moon jellies?

Are they dangerous?

If they were stuck together in groups they could have been pelagic tunicates (sp).

None of these are dangerous.

Equinox
We were swimming between Honeymoon and Solomon in August..also encountered something we hadnt seen before either...We have seen the moon jellies but this wasnt the same..These werent as big as the moon jellies we had seen they were small no bigger than the end of a finger and lots of them...clear almost like baby oil but obviously wasnt. it almost made the water look thick.. The fish didnt seem to mind it but we swam thru it. I added a pic that was taken, however I dont think it looked as bad being there as it looks in this picture. Perhaps it is the same thing you had saw.


Untitled by JnJShaw, on Flickr

From the images I've looked up, I'm going to say they were probably moon jellyfish. As I said, they were approximately 1 1/2-2" in diameter. They were definitely bigger than the tip of a finger. Wiki says they drift with the currents even when swimming, which was consistent with what I saw.