This map provides a quick look at the UK distribution of 7 of the most common and charismatic jellyfish and comb jellies we get along our UK coasts using observations from iNaturalist.

All photos are clickable to view photo ownership.

Photo Common Name Latin Name
Dustbin-lid Jelly Rhizostoma octopus
Compass Jelly Chrysaora hysoscella
Lion’s Mane Jelly Cyanea capillata
Common Moon Jelly Aurelia aurita
Blue Jelly Cyanea lamarckii
Sea Gooseberry Pleurobrachia pileus
Mauve Stinger Pelagia noctiluca

This is their geographic spread across the UK using all verified observations from iNaturalist.

Toggle specific species on and off using the check boxes on the right.

Why only iNaturalist data? Though the National Biodiversity Newtwork (NBN) has records going back further, jellies are one of the most often recorded and verified marine groups on iNat. As such, we feel the iNaturalist data gives sufficient coverage of species over the UK to use solely for this.

Please note, numbers of observations of each species will increase from date of publication.