This table will provide a quick run-down of all 14 species of jellyfish, comb jelly and stalked jelly that have been recorded at coasts around the UK, and show you which are the most common. For this table we have used records from iNaturalist.

The jellyfish are some of the largest invertebrates we get around our UK coasts. All true jellyfish are part of Cnidaria which means they possess stinging cells for defense and feeding. There are 6 true marine jellyfish or Scyphozoa that have been recorded in the UK.

In this report we have also included the comb jellies, which we have grouped because of their visual similarity and drifting lifestyle, but are completely different in terms of taxonomy! They are ctenophores which are not cnidarians so they don’t sting.

Finally, we have included another group, the stalked jellyfish (order Stauromedusae) in this. While these are not ‘true jellies’ (Scyphozoa), they are in the same phylum- Cnidaria, so do have stinging tentacles in the ‘pom-poms’ on the end of each arm. These are probably the easiest jellies to find in rockpools in the UK, and so far 5 species have been recorded on iNaturalist in the UK.

Check out the table below to see which are the most common!

All photos are clickable to view photo ownership.

Check below the table for more information on our data sources

Photo Common Name Latin Name Number of Observations
Dustbin-lid Jelly Rhizostoma octopus 1509
Compass Jelly Chrysaora hysoscella 1284
Lion’s Mane Jelly Cyanea capillata 1037
Common Moon Jelly Aurelia aurita 994
Blue Jelly Cyanea lamarckii 774
Sea Gooseberry Pleurobrachia pileus 312
Mauve Stinger Pelagia noctiluca 88
Northern Comb Jelly Beroe cucumis 51
NA Calvadosia campanulata 36
NA Calvadosia cruxmelitensis 28
NA Haliclystus octoradiatus 19
Common Northern Comb Jelly Bolinopsis infundibulum 18
Kaleidoscope Jelly Haliclystus auricula 6
NA Craterolophus convolvulus 3

Why only iNaturalist data? Though the National Biodiversity Newtwork (NBN) has records going back further, jellyfish are a very commonly recorded and verified group on iNaturalist. As such, we feel the iNaturalist data gives sufficient coverage of species over the UK to use for this.

Please note, numbers of each species recorded etc. will change from date of publication.