Lizzie Daly is a wildlife biologist and filmmaker with a passion for conserving our planet and the animals in it.
She believes:
“We live in a time where our planet is delicate and I feel a responsibility to look after it. So I hope people will remember me for what positive changes I have made.”
One thing for sure people are going to remember is the enormous barrel jellyfish she and fellow diver, and wildlife cinematographer Dan Abbott, spotted off the Cornwall coast.
“I’ve never seen a barrel, or any jellyfish, that big,” she exclaimed in the video.
Daly began, “Wild Ocean Week” as a fundraiser to help raise awareness about marine conservation with the Marine Conservation Society. The society is a non-profit and is the United Kingdom’s leading marine charity. They work to make sure the seas of the UK are healthy, pollution-free, and protected.
In an Instagram post, Daly wrote, “I wanted to show people that you really can see some pretty phenomenal things here in the UK and we should be celebrating it, protecting it, inspired by it!!”
The two-minute video shows Abbott capturing Daly as she prepares for the journey into the water. In modern-day fashion, a slow-tempoed electronic dance track accompanies the slow-motion video. The views are gorgeous and the scene, serene.
The video begins in the air and quickly changes to underwater, submerging the viewer into the world of marine life. Abbott captures various sea creatures, including smaller jellyfish, pulsing and drifting along.
Suddenly, the beat drops and through a haze that only the sea can provide, a jellyfish emerges. When the camera cuts, we see a much clearer image of the very large jellyfish. It’s mesmerizing and beautiful.
Abbott captures this moment effortlessly. He shoots different angles of both the jellyfish and Daly as they seemingly, interact with each other from a comfortable distance. It really is like being in the water with the two of them.
The video cuts, leaving slow-motion behind, to an ecstatic Daly and Abbott yelling in excitement.
The jellyfish was easily as tall as Daly, measuring almost five feet long!
Ironically, the divers encountered the jellyfish on the last day of the series, ending with a bang.
“What a way to finish Wild Ocean Week, here in Cornwall…” she exclaimed excitedly.
It seems, Daly, who devoted much of her life to preserving wildlife, was the perfect person to witness such a moment. She has steadily built a career over the years working as an expert for Cbeebies and is currently a presenter for BBC Earth Unplugged.
She balances her work life with her studies. She is currently studying a research Masters in Bristol investigating the sensory structures of arthropods.
All of the work hard work continues to pay off for Daly as she’s helped to inspire more people to look into ways to protect our wildlife and our planet!
Barrel jellyfish (scientific name, Rhizostoma pulmo), are the largest jellyfish found in the UK seas.
Most people see them when they wash up on shore during the summer months of May and June.
They typically measure 90cm long and weigh 35kg. They are gentle giants who feed mainly on plankton. They may seem odd to humans (they have no heart, blood, or brain) but they are harmless.
The sting of a jellyfish are typically not harmful to humans but if you ever come across one on the beach, it’s best not to touch it as they can still sting when they are dead.
Nature is full of all kinds of creatures we have yet to discover. Thanks to those like Daly, we continue to discover things we thought we never would!
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