By AMANE SHIMAZAKI/ Staff Writer
November 8, 2021 at 14:45 JST
Spotted jellyfish swarm a waterway near Kagoshima Bay on Oct. 5. (Provided by Kazushige Horiguchi)
An army of spotted jellyfish created an ethereal sight, lighting up the water on recent fall nights when they made an unseasonable appearance near Kagoshima Bay.
Several hundred spotted jellyfish, which are brown with white spots and 15 to 20 centimeters long, were in a waterway in Kagoshima on the evenings of Oct. 5 and 6, according to Tokyo-based professional photographer Kazushige Horiguchi.
On those evenings, Horiguchi, 35, captured shots of the creatures slowly swarming the southern Japan waterway, with the famed Sakurajima island in the background, from around 6 to 8 p.m.
Peak season for the jellyfish is normally August and September. But this year, fewer typhoons and higher water temperatures made it easier for them to stay longer in the waterway, according to the Kagoshima City Aquarium.
Between 30 to 50 spotted jellyfish headed Horiguchi’s way after he aimed strobe lights at the waterway.
The photographer has observed spotted jellyfish throughout Japan and photographed them in the Kagoshima waterway seven times since last year.
“I was overwhelmed as it was the first time for me to see such a huge number of them,” he said. “You can’t see a sight like that anywhere else.”
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