When Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin saw this photo of two kids next to what looked like a giant snot she says she said "Phwoar!" out loud. After all, she was looking at a completely new species, one that she had been chasing for a decade.
The thing that I first said when I saw it [the photograph] was 'Phwoar'. It's a very scientific term. I'm just rapt by it, honestly. It's such an amazing find.
Gershwin—a marine biologist who specializes in jellyfish—had been hearing stories about this beast for twenty years. She was able to identify two other new jellyfish, but she was never able to see or capture a specimen of this 5-foot monster, the legendary huge lion's mane jellyfish that everyone talked about but nobody actually had proof of.
Probably about five years ago I finally put together in my head that there were really three different species of lion's mane jellyfish in Tasmania, or 'snotties' as they're also called. Yes snotties, they're a bit slimy.
So, when she saw the photo taken on the southern coast of Tasmania, she was really shocked by its size. She couldn't imagine they could be this big, she said to the Sydney Morning Herald. "It's really an enormous animal. I've never seen anything like this."
I have. It looks like the vomit-coated streets of New York in St. Patrick's Day or a special effect for the Ghostbusters. Life—sometimes it just looks like one giant snot.