Visitor From The Deep

Engineer Les Bromley spotted the two-foot-wide rhistoma but had no idea what it was.

"We often go outside to look at the fish and saw this thing caught up in a propeller, I thought it was a carrier bag at first."

Les fished it out with a landing net and discovered it was a dead jellyfish.

Sussex marine expert Steve Savage identified it as a rhistoma, otherwise known as an octopus jellyfish, and said that although it wasn't particularly rare, Les's discovery was quite a large specimen.

"They have had a lot off the Devon and Cornwall coast, which sparked a series of 999 calls.

"They are very graceful creatures, and quite fascinating to look at," said Steve.

Rhistoma jellyfish can grow up to a metre wide and feed on plankton.

Steve explained that in some years, quite a few might be spotted and in others, only one or two, because jellyfish are at the mercy of the currents.