It's like watching a cloud float by, said John Buchanan.
Through a glass-bottomed bucket dipped into the water, the Squamish environmental activist watched the mass of jellyfish drift along.
They're everywhere, Buchanan said, on Friday (Nov. 1).
Streams of the whitish sea creatures have recently made their way to Squamish's shoreline, hovering around the mouth of the Squamish River and accumulating in the Mamquam Blind Channel. Photos of the schools have hit social media, popping up on Twitter and Facebook.
The lives of jellyfish are a bit of a mystery, said Mackenzie Neale, a senior biologist at the Vancouver Aquarium. Only in the past 30 years or so have they caught the attention of scientists, she said. Without historical records, there are big holes in information regarding jellyfish.
There are definitely a lot of things we don't know about jellyfish, Neale said.
The plume of jellyfish spotted around Squamish could be a result of the unusually dry fall. Usually it's a season of heavy rain, forcing jellyfish to venture deeper into the sea, away from the layer of fresh water that normally sits on top of the salt water.
This year, that rain didn't come. The jellyfish remained closer to the ocean's surface, making them more visible, Neale said. During the summer, Neale spent hours scuba diving in an attempt to track down a variety of jellyfish species to no avail.
Before now, I would have said it was a bad year for jellyfish, she said. We had a horrible time trying to collect the ones we wanted.
The dry spell has resulted in crystal clear waters, allowing for the jellyfish to be easily viewed, Buchanan said. He speculates that one possible reason for the bloom of jellyfish in the Blind Channel is that they're feeding on the raw sewage entering the system from live-aboard boats.
There are still lots of unanswered questions going on in Howe Sound right now, he said.
