You don't need to go to Palau to dive with Moon Jellies

[spt29970]

One highlight of my recent Alaska trip aboard the Nautilus Swell was diving in the "smudges" of Patterson bay. These are incredible blooms of moon jellies with tens out thousands of them pulsing hypnotically. It is a surreal experience. The biggest difference (although I have never been to Palau) is that they are in cold water.
The moon jellies are non-stinging, but frankly with a drysuit on it hardly makes a difference. Here are a couple of my favorites. The rest of the set can be found at: Alaska 2011 - a set on Flickr


Genn and the smudges by - drsteve -, on Flickr


Better than the Monterey Bay Aquarium. by - drsteve -, on Flickr

 

[Cjs_777]

Congrats drsteve, some great photos there!

Could you tell us a bit more about how you got the 2nd photo on this page? The water is obviously very green, but you still managed to make the subject jellies 'pop' without backscatter - where did you have your strobe(s)?

Chris

 

[fdarden]

Go to Palau? I actually saw moon jellies in the canal behind my house yesterday for the first time in the 11 years I have lived here. If you want to see moon jellies come to South Florida. Very cool pics. The are beautiful.

Frank

 

[spt29970]

Chris,
I had dual Inon strobes on long arms. The arms were fully extended and the strobes were placed behind the plane of the camera, feathered slightly inward to provide "edge lighting." I didn't use any diffusers because I wanted a hard edge to the beam. The water in Patterson bay was quite stratified. The green layer was confined to the top 40ft or so. Below it the visibility opened up considerably. Even so, it was pretty dark around 60ft, but you get that nice green "sky"

Frank,
We get moon jellies quite often here in Santa Barbara, but they are always relatively solitary. We never get the huge aggregations I saw in Patterson Bay.