Moment monster 40ft jellyfish with excruciating sting is spotted off UK coast – as beachgoers warned

THIS is the moment a monster 40ft jellyfish was spotted off the UK coast with beachgoers warned of its exruciating sting. A free diver from Pembrokeshire captured stunning footage of the lion’s mane jellyfish off the Welsh coast, saying it was the “length of a bus”. This is the moment a monster 40ft jellyfish was spotted off the UK coast A free diver captured stunning footage of the lion’s mane jellyfish in Wales Credit: WNS Swimmer Iestyn Morgan, 21, was stunned at the sight of the lion’s mane jellyfish with 40ft tentacles in the water. He spotted at least 20 in the shoal as he swam off the coast of Pembrokeshire – and has been assured their sting is “nasty but not life-threatening.” Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Morgan filmed the giant moving slowly through the water as it dwarfed nearby fish and its tentacles went “beyond the range of visibility”. He said: “Three turned to 10, and then to 20. They just kept on coming. Stunning footage shows the jellyfish with its 40ft long tentacles moving through the water Credit: WNS Iestyn Morgan, 21, said it was ‘one of the most memorable sights of my life’ Credit: WNS “It must have been the length of a bus or small train. I couldn’t believe how big it was.” He initially thought it was a compass jellyfish, which are native to UK waters, before realising it was too big. Morgan said on social media it was “one of the most memorable sights of my life” as “this giant cruised over the shallows”. Lion’s mane jellyfish gets its name from its long tentacles, and has “all the beauty and bite of a lion”. Most read in The Sun They can grow up to nearly 10ft in length, but the tentacles – which are used to catch their prey – can measure as long as 120ft making it one of the longest animals on Earth. Iestyn was “grateful” they were in the waters near Trefin, West Wales – adding they were not “big scary monsters” as some people may think. “Your biggest problem is if you swim into them. You don’t want to get stung by a lion’s mane,” he said. He is creating a conservation project – saying his content has been “very rewarding” as he wanted to make aquatic environments “more accessible” to people. But he was always conscious that he never wanted to harm the animals as part of his project. “I don’t want to turn it into something that I’m going out to hunt the animals or anything,” he said. “I just get in the water, film and swim.” Marine biologist Dr Cathy Lucas, from the University of Southampton, said Iestyn showed the animal’s incredible length. “The tentacles are so long and so fine you might not even see them,” she said. “They still sting after they break off,” she said, adding that while the sting was “nasty” and “the worst in the UK”, it was not dangerous. “The advice is not to touch them and if you get a bit of tentacle on your skin flick it off with a stick and wash in warm water to neutralise,” she said. Lucas said lion’s manes “occasionally” reach the Welsh coast later in the summer or autumn but their main habitat in the UK was Scotland. Comment now