A bloom of an edible scyphozoan jellyfish in the Red Sea

Abstract

A bloom of the edible jellyfish Cephea cephea (Forskål, 1775) in the Red Sea is reported here from archived photographic evidence. Animals (10–20 cm wide) were observed in seven different reefs and accumulated at high densities on some beaches of Marsa Alam, Egypt. Various coral reef fishes preyed on this temporary resource. Although the jellyfish is native to the Red Sea, this is the first record of such an event in this ecosystem, and only the second record of this phenomenon since the 1800s.