Imagine, if you will (the way Outer Limits always started), it’s a spring evening and you glance over the rail. A small round and luminous clear orb of jelly the size of a marble seems to swim by your boat. It’s underwater and goes by in a determined way. On closer look, you realize there are rows of thousands of almost microscopic arms waving like rows of little oars propelling it along. As you watch its rainbow shimmering, almost like it’s emitting light from within, the little orb stops, starts, then dives away into the darkness. This, my friends, is a Sea Gooseberry. Not a jelly fish and not even related to them, but an animal, a carnivore looking for small crustaceans, larval fish and other morsels for an evening sea-side meal. By day it hangs deep, down to 150 feet, then at dusk it rises towards the surface like a little crystal balloon – a submarine worthy of Hollywood.

Some call these “comb bearing” jellys that refer to the series of lined little combs that move in a wave-like manner for propulsion, but they also have two other sets of almost invisible tentacles. These are sort of sticky snares, traps to catch food. One might think a something called a Sea Gooseberry would be a primitive creature, but after they snare a possible meal, the little animal just holds it awhile as if ‘looking it over’, discerning if it’s nutritious, safe and worthy of becoming a meal. If it decides not, it just turns the lucky creature loose and goes about its way. Imagine that! A picky eater.

Larry Eifert paints and sails the Pacific Northwest from Port Townsend. His large-scale murals can be seen in many national parks across America, and at larryeifert.com.