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What a find! Great capture of the natural world.

Great capture of a very strange world!!!

Thanks for sharing this interesting photo! We have jellyfish invasion in the Black sea too. You may see my photo of this event. They are usually cast ashore with a flow.

Great find, and I have never heard of this. Learning a lot on WU

Nice capture! Thanks for sharing. :)

I have never heard of such a thing,and I have watched lots of nature shows,,,wow!! I'll have to read up on this one...how bizzare!! Wondered if it were due to environmental changes?? Thank you for sharing this very interesting and VIP image!!:)) Happy New Year!-Mindi

I live just North of you in Port Lavaca. Been here 50 years and sure as shootin', it's just part of the normal cycle of these marine animals. Cabbage heads or cannon balls, same name...one teriffic mess! Great shot.
Here's some info from Wikipedia:

The cannonball jellyfish (Stomolophus meleagris), also known as the cabbage head jellyfish, is a species of jellyfish in the family Stomolophidae. Its common name derives from its similarity to a cannonball in shape and size. Its dome-shaped bell can reach 25 cm (10 inches) in diameter and the rim is sometimes colored with brown pigment. Underneath of the body is a cluster of oral arms that extend out around the mouth. These arms function as a way of propulsion and aid in catching prey. Cannonballs are prominent from North America's eastern seaboard all the way to Brazil, but are also found in parts of the Pacific.

Cannonballs eat mainly zooplankton such as veligers, and also all forms of red drum larvae. They have a symbiotic relationship with the portly spider crab, which also eats the small zooplankton. The crab feeds on the prey captured by the cannonball and also on the medusae of the jellyfish.

One of the main predators of cannonball jellyfish is the endangered species leatherback sea turtle. When leatherbacks migrate north from the Caribbean from April to early summer they feed on the cannonballs. Cannonballs are a main source of food for the leatherbacks, so conservation of cannonball jellyfish is important to the survival of the leatherbacks.

Cannonball jellyfish are commercially harvested as food for humans.

Along the coast of the southern U.S. state of Georgia, jellyfish are a valuable export, which end up on dining tables across Asia. The jellyfish are dried, preserved and packaged before being sold to a seafood distributor that ships them to Japan, China, and Thailand.

Jellyball (as they are known locally) fishing is Georgia's third largest commercial fishery - after shrimp and crabs - but only five boats are permitted to catch them.
source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannonball_Jellyfish

WOW!! That was fascinating!! I did not know there was a edible market for them either.....they must be quite plentiful,,,I HOPE!? Thanks to Mike for the Wiki-info!! Wow an Octopus? How cool to see one,,wonder if it survived and went back into deeper water..or maybe it was old..thanks for the enlightening photo and comments!and Congrats on the VIP too!!:)

Ditto on everything Mindi said! Thanks to both you and Mike, sillysun. I learn new things all the time from all you WU friends! :-)