Did You Know Before Today that Maine is Home to Freshwater Jellyfish?

Some things are supposed to stay in the ocean.

Worldwide, there is evidence of sharks that will go into freshwater. Heck, right here in Maine, there's a few things that are supposed to be in the briny deep, and not the warm shallows of Maine's lakes and ponds. But we've all seen fresh water clams, sturgeon, and salmon. All those are typically associated with saltwater.

Read More: Maine CDC Suggests You Don't Eat Fish from these Dangerous Waters

But never in all my years, until today, had I ever heard that there was a such thing as a kind of jellyfish that lives in freshwater. I always assumed that they were another "ocean only" kind of animal. But today's your lucky day. You get to actually have one more thing to be scared of when crawl into a murky pond.

Freshwater jellies are nothing excessively new, actually.

I found a reprint of an article from the early 60's, talking all about the freshwater jellies. Some call them peach blossoms, others refer to them as medusas. But they're about one-inch in diameter, and theoretically could sting you, but they're stingers are so small they can't penetrate human skin, so you're safe from that at least. No one will have to pee on your freshwater jelly sting. But they're kinda creepy. Check it out...

Freshwater jellyfish
byu/ScottM317 inMaine

It's funny, a lot of the folks on Reddit seemed pretty concerned about whether or not the OP threw it back in the water. He did, but others argued that these jellyfish are actually an invasive species from China, so maybe he shouldn't have thrown it back after all. Hard to call that one...

Sometimes there's a ton of them.

Interestingly, when conditions are right, they can actually have a population boom. When this happens, you may even find a huge colony of them. They're obviously not good swimmers, so the action of the water itself kind of pulls them out to the middle. But it's not a wildly common occurrence.

Read More: Can You Swim in Maine Lakes Where You Shouldn’t Eat the Fish?

Really, there's nothing about them that's going to hurt you. But if you were out in a boat and saw hundreds of them, or found one stuck to your leg or something, you'd probably have a solid fright. I know I would. But you can at least rest easy knowing they're harmless little creatures. You've got nothing to worry about.