Featured Image Paradise Day Photo by Sara d’Atria

Fried eggs might not be the first thing you think about when you see a jellyfish, but as soon as you spot your first Cotylorhiza Tuberculata, you’ll instantly get it.

Right on time, these colourful, sizeable but mostly harmless critters have returned to Maltese shores to treat snorkelers to a sight straight out of that one healthy breakfast you prepared earlier this summer.

“This species normally appears at this time of the year,” marine biologist Alan Deidun told Lovin Malta. “It sticks to the surface of waters in view of the photosynthetic single-cell algae it harbours in its purple tips.”

The stunning specimen was spotted last Saturday at Paradise Bay by a contributor of Spot The Jellyfish, a campaign that aims to document and study jellyfish sightings all around the Maltese coast.

Fried egg jellyfish are actually common to Maltese waters during the warm mid-August period. In fact, the species has even earned itself a couple of Maltese nicknames; tal-lampuki (because its appearance typically coincides with the start of the lampuki fishing season), and the accurate and hilarious qassata.

Last year, the jellyfish was also spotted particularly early on in August. Back then, Professor Deidun had said that this would herald large blooms of jellyfish across summer… something that definitely also manifested itself this year.

Have you seen this jellyfish or other beautiful marine life in the Maltese seas? Send your pictures to [email protected] and tag someone who loves jellyfish!

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).