Golden Jellyfish Only Live in Jellyfish Lake on Palau

Chances are, if you ever visit Palau for vacation, you'll stop at Jellyfish Lake. With good cause, this may be the most well-known tourist destination in the nation. It is an inland lake filled almost entirely with jellyfish. Because the jellyfish are not harmful to people, swimming and scuba diving are very popular.

The lake is the only place in the world where you may locate the golden jellyfish. Swimming was prohibited for a wall even though the species was declining; however, in 2019, swimming was allowed once more. The lake formerly contained 20 million jellyfish. It fell to little over 100,000 in 2018. Between 5 and 8 million people is considered a decent population, but that number hasn't been attained yet. It is thought that environmental variables like El Nino and sunscreen use by beachgoers both played a role in the population reduction of the jellyfish.

Because the route of the sun as it passes overhead each day influences the growth of the algae that the jellyfish consume, they move in order to promote the growth and consumption of their food supply.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Petalonamae
Class: Scyphozoa
Order: Rhizostomeae
Family: Mastigiidae
Genus: Mastigias
Species: M. papua
Subspecies: M. p. etpisoni