By Anupum Pant
About 12,000 years from now, when there was a rise in the sea levels after the ice age ended, the water from seas filled up several places on the land, and with that water came in several marine organisms too. Lakes were formed with marine animals in them.
Out of these several lakes formed this way, there was one which got its own stock of jellyfish. This lake is now in a rock island off the coast of Koror in Palau. Today, after centuries of isolation from predators and having great amounts of algae to consume, the lake almost overflows with jellyfish.
These golden jellyfish, unlike their marine counterparts have stingers that are too small to cause any harm. So it is safe to swim with them.
Millions of them are there. These teacup sized jellyfish in this saltwater lake keep moving to and fro in the lake, so as to follow the sun. In the morning they move to the east side where there’s more sunlight, while in the evening they move towards the west – serves 3 purposes.
- Enough food to eat where there’s sunlight.
- Predators are less likely to be present in the bright areas.
- And the fish enjoy basking in the sun.