An Australian beach has been coated with thousands of blue blubber jellyfish.
The eye-popping sight was photographed by Charlotte Lawson in Queensland’s Deception Bay.
“When we got closer we realised it was jellyfish,” she told the BBC.
“It was like bubble-wrap across the beach.”
Marine biologist Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin said the bloom – “a wallpaper of jellyfish” - was the biggest she had seen in 25 years of research.
She told ABC News: “This is jaw-dropping. I’ve never seen them that close together.
“I can’t imagine what they would look like in the water, for them to have stranded that close together.”
She added she believed northerly winds, tide conditions and warmer waters had caused the jellyfish to strand in such large numbers.
The blue blubber jellyfish is the most common jellyfish in south-east Queensland and are often found in dense swarms, swimming just below the surface of the water.
According to the Queensland museum, occasionally there are mass beachings. Although it does not usually cause a serious sting to humans, cold packs or wrapped ice should be applied.