When Ocean photographers Tim Samuel and Franny Plumridge where out off Byron Bay on the eastern coast of Australia, they could not believe what they saw. At first they were not sure what it was because it looked really bizarre. It was a strange combination of a yellow fish AND a translucent jellyfish. Tom posted it to his Instagram account and it went viral after being reposted and getting on Reddit.
In his years of photographing oceanic life, Tom hadn’t seen anything quite like this before.
So how did this happen? It’s unlikely the jellyfish actually tried to eat the fish. Often small fish can use jellyfish or such to hide from view. In this case, the fish was alive and well and in fact, the fish’s tail was sticking outside the back of the jelly, so it was able to drive the creature forward.
The Odd Couple
Tom stated: “The conditions were crystal clear that day, which is why we able to spot the little pair in the first place. The jellyfish was only a couple inches long making the duo an easy miss for sure. We stuck around for about 20 minutes and then left the couple to their own devices. I thought about setting the fish free as we swam off – but figured it was best to just let nature run its course.”
When you are a photographer you can only dream about getting that amazing shot. Talk about being at the right place at the right time to catch such an amazing shot of a fish trapped inside a jellyfish!
Photo Credit: Tim Samuel