#4848 · 🪼 jellyfish, starfish, worms & co
Compass Jelly
🇳🇱 Kompaskwal ·Chrysaora hysoscella
7 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
what is it?
Chrysaora hysoscella , also known as the compass jellyfish , is a very common species of jellyfish that lives in coastal waters of the Atlantic and Mediterranean, including near the United Kingdom, Ireland and Turkey. It is also known from the southern Atlantic Ocean from the west coast of South Africa and False BayIt has a diameter of up to 30 cm. Its 24 tentacles are arranged in eight groups of three. It is usually colored yellowish white, with...
base stats
Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).
fun facts
- Spotted 682 times in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: the #2 most seen of the jellyfish, starfish, worms & co in NL.
- 5,731 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.
- Scientifically named in 1766 (260 years ago).
fact sheet
- English
- Compass Jelly
- Nederlands
- Kompaskwal
- scientific name
- Chrysaora hysoscella
- class
- Scyphozoa
- order
- Semaeostomeae
- family
- Pelagiidae
- sightings in NL
- 682
- sightings in Europe
- 5,347
- sightings worldwide
- 5,731
- GBIF records in NL
- 33,919
- weight
- —
- length
- —
- lifespan
- —
- named
- 1766
relatives· Pelagiidae
Sources: iNaturalist taxon 360314, Wikidata Q2440379, GBIF 5185425, Wikipedia (EN), Wikipedia (NL). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.