Aussie euphoric after 'phenomenal' discovery off jetty: 'Like nothing I've ever seen'

A scientist has shared her utter "euphoria" after uncovering an incredible aquatic phenomenon, stating that in her entire 30-year career, she'd "never witnessed anything anywhere near this scale."

Director of the Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services and jellyfish expert, Dr Lisa-ann Gershwin of Tasmania, told Yahoo how she was at the Oyster Cove Marina in Kettering, south of Hobart, when she made the "hypnotising" find this week.

Describing the "bloom" of salps — a barrel-shaped, planktonic tunicate, actually more closely related to people than jellyfish — Gershwin said its exceptionally rare to see so many of the strange-looking marine species in one place.

Sharing images of the "truly fabulous" sight, Gershwin said to those unfamiliar, it might initially be hard to decipher what is actually taking place in the footage, but the answer is "phenomenal".

"Individuals are called zooids, and what you're seeing is the zooids stuck together on these chains," she told Yahoo. "They're clones of each other. Then as they mature, they break off the chains and they become individuals.

"They're absolutely just phenomenal — you can practically watch them grow. They grow up to 10 per cent of their body length per hour, and they go through two generations in a day. This is what's driving this tremendous population that we're seeing."

What are salps and why are they important?

Using flashlights to illuminate the sea so the salps were visible, Gershwin said the creatures actually play a vital part in ocean ecosystems, due to their role in nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and as part of the marine food web. Jelly-like in appearance — though they are actually not jellyfish at all — salps consume vast amounts of phytoplankton, filtering large quantities of water to feed.

In doing so, they produce dense, carbon-rich faecal pellets that sink quickly to the ocean floor, making salps a key contributor to the biological pump—a process that removes carbon from the surface waters and helps regulate global climate.

Additionally, salps serve as a food source for various marine predators, including fish, turtles, and some seabirds. Their swarming behaviour and rapid reproduction allow them to respond quickly to phytoplankton blooms, maintaining ecological balance and supporting the ocean's productivity.

"They're not usually in these sort of numbers," Gershwin said. "So they do bloom as a natural part of their lives. When we see them, it's generally because they are in a bloom condition, but the scale and the density of this bloom is like nothing I've ever seen before.

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"They were hypnotising. I remember at one point, I was watching them in the water and I was filming it and I just didn't want to stop. I just wanted to keep going, because I couldn't look away.

"My friend was with me and she said 'I think they've achieved nirvana'. And I said, 'never mind their nirvana — what about mine!'"

Gershwin in the co-creator of the Jellyfish App, designed to help Australians quickly assess what species are likely to be around, what to do to keep from being stung.

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