A jellyfish species usually found in the North West Pacific Ocean has made its way to the Moray Firth.

The crystal jellyfish, known as Aequorea Victoria, is now on display at Macduff Marine Aquarium after being discovered by a wildlife tour operator at Aberdour Bay, east of Pennan.

Ian Page, skipper of the boat first saw the unusual jellies at the beginning of August and after trawling the internet to identify the species, alerted aquarium staff of his find.

The jellyfish range in size from 5cm to 20cm in diameter and are transparent, with purple coloured lines radiating from the centre.

Like other jellyfish, the crystal jelly has stinging tentacles, used to catch small planktonic prey, though they are not harmful to humans.

Peter Richardson, the Marine Conservation Society’s biodiversity programme manager, confirmed there have been no records of sightings of crystal jellyfish in Scotland until now.

He said: “It’s very uncommon to find crystal jellyfish in British waters and they are usually considered to be an open water species.

“It’s difficult to say whether its appearance in the Moray Firth is indicative of any changes in climatic conditions – we might be able to build up a better picture of their distribution if we get more reports through the Marine Conservation Society’s jellyfish survey.”

Crystal jellies live for only a short time and will be on display for temporarily at Macduff Marine Aquarium.

The Moray Firth is home to a wealth of marine wildlife, including the famous bottlenose dolphins, minke whales and basking sharks and this year the coastal waters have been full of the common British jellyfish species – moon and lion’s mane jellies.

Skippers have also reported several sightings of ocean sunfish (Mola mola) in Banff Bay this summer – the world’s heaviest bony fish which survives by eating jellyfish.