The Thrill of Diving With Thousands of Jellyfish in Palau

Not only Spongebob who can play and swim with thousands of jellyfish. You can do that also appeared in jellyfish lake. On the island of Eil malk, Palau, there is a unique lake which is the habitat of thousands of jellyfish. In the language of Palau lake is named Ongeim'l Tketau which means 'fifth lake', but the name jellyfish lake seem to more inherent in memories all people.

Jellyfish Lake is one of the mainstay of attractions Eil malk. Eil malk is part of the Rock Island. While the Palau itself is an island nation located in the Pacific Ocean. Palau borders the northern region of the waters of Indonesia and the Philippines.

The lake is inhabited by thousands of jellyfish has been less than 12,000 years old. Although seemingly separate from nearby beach, actually jellyfish lake connected to the sea, through three tunnels are near the surface of the lake. It is estimated that the lake was formed due to rising sea levels that overflowed to the mainland and then filling the valley. Most likely when the jellyfish that had live in the ocean carried on and got stuck in the waters of the lake forever.

Jellyfish that live in the lake is derived from a species of the golden jellyfish (Mastigias sp.) and the moon jellyfish (Aurelia sp.). According to Wikipedia, the golden jellyfish is related to the spotted jellyfish that live in the lagoon near the lake. Most likely the two kinds soft animals are the same species. Just because the jellyfish migrate and make the lake as a habitat, they slowly evolved into a species of jellyfish are different.

As reported by Atlas Obscura, live in safe waters, without any predators that threaten the survival of making the jellyfish lost most of the self-defense mechanism. The tentacles of jellyfish in this lake was still able to produce a shock, but not strong enough to be felt by the sensoric nerves in the human skin. So swim with jellyfish the relatively harmless.

This lake is widely hunted by divers and tourists. They generally want to feel the sensation of different dive with thousands of jellyfish. And this location is allowed to dive. But the activity of scuba diving is not allowed here because it feared could damage the ecosystem.

During the day, visitors can see the jellyfish migrate to the other side of the lake. This jellyfish was like moving to follow the direction of sunlight, because sunlight is very important for photosynthetic algae that become their main source of food.