Check Out This Massive Lion’s Mane Jelly Fish in Blue Hill, Maine

Editor's note: This article was written by a Townsquare Media Northern New England contributor and may contain the individual's views, opinions, or personal experiences.

This gorgeous shot of a Lion's Mane Jelly Fish was captured by an amateur photographer named Zoe Weil. She posted it to the MAINE Wildlife Facebook group with the caption "I've seen a lot of Lion's Mane jellyfish beached on the shore recently. This was the biggest. (Blue Hill, 3/25/23)" It received almost 9,000 likes and was shared 1,500 times.

Zoe has dabbled in photography for a couple of decades, and her work has been featured in The Sun Magazine, Maine Boats Homes and Harbors, and the Ellsworth American. She works primarily as the co-founder and president of the Institute for Humane Education. Their mission is to educate people to create a world where humans, animals, and nature can thrive. They work primarily with educators to bring their Solutionary Framework to their students so that they can learn to identify and collaboratively solve local, state, national, and global problems (here’s a 3.5 minute video of Maine students and teachers doing just this).

They also offer online graduate programs with Antioch University, the only ones of their kind in the world linking human rights, environmental sustainability, and animal protection.

Her photography has a primary focus of appreciating nature, and is often a profound motivation for protecting the natural world and the myriad of species who share the planet with us.

Please feel free to visit their website and check out her TEDx talk(s) for more info.

Zoe was apprehensive to reveal the exact location of where the photo above was captured, because the area is a very sensitive habitat. She has seen about a half dozen large Lion’s Mane jellies washed ashore on Patten Bay in Surry where she lives, including large ones. This wasn’t the biggest she has ever seen, but it was pretty big!

Zoe likes to photograph Lion’s Mane jellyfish from her paddle board, and here are a few more photos of these stunning animals:

Zoe, thank you for sharing your photos with us and for the important work you do.