Journeys›Photograph

A Day Watching Jellyfish at Pier 39

·San Francisco, California·#winter#bay area#aquarium#jellyfish
Two pale, bell-shaped jellyfish with red markings and trailing tentacles float in blue water.

Drove down to San Francisco with one thing on the agenda: the jellyfish gallery at the aquarium on Pier 39, Embarcadero and Beach. The gallery is called Go With the Flow and holds five species of sea jellies, and I stayed with it most of the visit instead of moving on to the rest of the building.

The Pacific sea nettles were the main event — a whole tank of them, orange bells trailing arms longer than I could track, drifting past each other in knots. The big oval window on that tank had a crowd in front of it the entire time, everyone in silhouette against the blue. I gave up waiting for a clear spot and just worked in among them.

The moon jellies were the opposite of the nettles — pale, almost featureless, just sliding around each other. There was also a tank of what I think were egg-yolk jellies, though I couldn't find the label to confirm it. One of them hung upside down for a while and never righted itself before I moved on.

Two brown and yellow jellyfish with long tentacles swim in bright blue water.Numerous orange and brown jellyfish with long, delicate tentacles swim in vibrant blue water.Many orange and brown jellyfish with long tentacles swim gracefully in bright blue water.Numerous translucent, pale jellyfish float gracefully in vibrant blue water.Several translucent jellyfish with yellow-orange centers float in deep blue water.Numerous brown and golden jellyfish with flowing tentacles in bright blue water.Silhouettes of people watch numerous orange jellyfish swimming in a large blue aquarium tank.Numerous orange jellyfish with long, flowing tentacles swim in bright blue water.

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