5-foot ‘mass’ of jelly found on Cayman Islands beach may be tens of thousands of eggs
A disconcerting entity resembling a 5-foot-long snake made of jelly has been found on a Caribbean beach 450 miles south of Miami.
The Cayman Islands Department of Environment shared a baffling photo of the mass Friday, revealing the coil is so well camouflaged, it’s virtually invisible.
Only on closer inspection does the viewer see a long, slender object snagged in seaweed at the water’s edge.
“Beginning of April, this solid, 5 foot long and 6-inch wide, mass of transparent jelly was found in Pease Bay,” the department posted.
What is it?
The department isn’t completely sure, but believes it may actually be a bunch of things: An egg mass from a large diamondback squid.
Finding such egg masses is extremely rare, experts say.
Only 29 documented sightings of diamondback egg masses have been made in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, according to a study published in 2014 by ResearchGate.net.
The diamondback squid grows to about 6 feet in length, is bright red and a single egg mass can contain as many as 75,000 eggs, the Journal of Plankton Research said in a report.
Commenters on the post by Cayman Islands officials wondered if the eggs were still viable when photographed.
Diamondback egg masses begin to turn “redish-pink” as the eggs near hatching, suggesting the mass found in the Caymans was not that far along, according to the report in ResearchGate.
Cayman Island officials say the egg mass was photographed by Melissa Jenkinson who told McClatchy News she was walking her dog on the beach at the time.
“It was probably longer than 5 foot to be honest, but it was hard to measure!” Jenkinson said in an email.
“It was easy to see because it looked so weird and completely out of place. I had no idea what it was, only that it was not something I’ve ever seen before. I thought it was some strange, huge worm at first, then took a closer look and saw that is was a solid mass of jelly like substance,” she said.
This story was originally published May 16, 2020 at 10:15 AM with the headline "5-foot ‘mass’ of jelly found on Cayman Islands beach may be tens of thousands of eggs."