On Sunday morning (May 20) getting the 7.30am from YSW noticed more than half a dozen large jellyfish near the pier. Disconcertingly there were a lot of small dead fish (or were they merely stung and just stunned) floating lifelessly in the water nearby.

As we pulled out on the ferry I saw that there were in fact hunderds of them off the coast. All of them are about the size of a football/basketball and very much alive.

This morning at 8am I noticed they were back again, although today there were no dead fish in the vicinity.

I managed to get some pictures Sunday and today, though only from my phone so not the best quality.

I am wondering exactly what sort of jellyfish they are, and are they particularly dangerous or not?

Has anyone else noticed them in the past few days?

So over to you. Any jellyfish experts out there?

Oh man, this is quite scary. I was planning to start swimming more in the sea.

A bunch of kids found a dead jellyfish on Power Station Beach a couple months back. 30 inch diameter.

Very close to the pier at YSW this time so got some much clearer photos.

I spotted about half a dozen this morning both sides of the pier, hadn't seen any for a week or so up till today.

Just how dangerous are these little blighters if you happened to blunder into one while swimming?

I've brushed by a few while swimming at HSY. No stings, just feel like soft rubber. But there are many species, don't know if any venomous ones are around.

The shark net at HSY stops most of them anyway.

When the water is clear they're quite fascinating and beautiful to watch up close. Very alien creatures to us.

But look out for sea urchins, there are a lot among the rocks in front of the barbecues. Step on one and that hurts.

I don't know much about jellyfish, but I know that in all the years I have been catching ferries, I have seen swarms of them in the harbour and around Lamma periodically, but there are many years apart with sightings. Do they just 'hatch' every few years?

I have noticed a lot lately in the Harbour near the Hung Hom Ferry pier in Kowloon.

Had a nasty experience with a jellyfish in the waters around SKW years back. I was swimming around in deep water during a junk trip. Felt an excruciating pain. so quickly swam back to the boat. Within seconds my arm erupted with at least 50 painful blisters. My arm was on fire.

Fortunately the boatman had a bottle of ammonia (so I didn't have to apply urine to the sting) and the pain stopped and the blisters collapsed. I did end up with an incredibly impressive scar on my arm that took six weeks to heal though.

I'm very wary of jellyfish now, understandably. I also swim every morning, (OK.. most when it's nice and warm) but I only do so when the water is clear and I stay close to the shore.

Sadly it has made me a bit wimpy as regards to my swimming habits.

HSY beach is better as the nets will stop anything like big buggers getting in.