Extraordinary footage of a fish swallowed by a jellyfish! - video

An unusual photo was taken by an Australian while snoorking in the waters of Byron Bay, near Brisbane on Australia’s east coast. In the middle of a dive like so many, Tim Samuel recorded a video and took some photo shots of a fish being swallowed by a jellyfish! Although such a situation does happen in nature, to capture it with a camera lens is an opportunity few are lucky enough to have and probably only once in a lifetime.

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The happy freediver posted pictures of this extraordinary dive on his Instagram, and from there, with a snowball effect, they made their way to the desks of more and more editors of scientific journals and portals.

Video posted by user Tim Samuel (@timsamuelphotography) 8 Jun, 2016 at 12:24pm PDT

As the author of the extraordinary shots himself admitted, the whole incident required a huge amount of luck. Apart from being in the right place at the right time, Samuels had a lot of trouble getting the focus right while filming the unlucky fish. Here too, however, fate smiled on him and the moment of being swallowed by the jellyfish can be seen relatively well. Summarising the recorded footage he said:

“My first reaction was immense amazement, as I had never seen anything like it. I even considered releasing the unfortunate fish, but in the end I decided to let nature run its course. It was a difficult decision, however.”

Here begins another interesting chapter in the story. An employee of the Centre for Marine Science at the University of Queensland commented on the matter and said that it was a very good decision.

Photo posted by user Tim Samuel (@timsamuelphotography) 7 Jun, 2016 at 1:13am PDT

“The fish engulfed by the jellyfish is most likely a juvenile karanks. Representatives of this species, being in the early stages of development, are known to seek protection from larger sea creatures such as sharks. The cockroach may have used the jellyfish as shelter or protection from a spotted predator and was not actually swallowed by the jellyfish, but merely took refuge in part of it. This jellyfish is most likely a representative of the australian box jellyfish and I think karanx was very happy to find such a refuge,” explained marine biologist Professor Ian Tibbets

The happy photographer summarised this unusual situation in one sentence:

“I managed to take all of these by complete accident, but they are still the most extraordinary shots I have captured in my five-year-long adventure into underwater photography!”

Source: techtimes.com, valuewalk.com, perfscience.com
Photo: instagram.com/timsamuelphotography