Source: TimeWerke Videos on YouTube.
During our stay at the Shangri-La Tanjung Aru Resort & Spa in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, we decided to have some fun parasailing. Accompanying us on this airborne and seaborne adventure was the Maurice Lacroix Aikon Venturer that is water-resistant to 300 metres.
We got more than what we had bargained for on our parasailing adventure. It was early March (7 March 2019) and we witnessed first-hand the jellyfish bloom while airborne. We even came real close to being stung by a huge jellyfish.
The jellyfish sightings and the close call with potentially painful stings added to the rush and excitement while parasailing and there were truly no regrets. Not being experts in marine life, we were unable to identify the jellyfish species seen in the video.
Researcher Dr John Madin of the Borneo Marine Research Institute (BMRI) in Universiti Malaysia Sabah was reported to have said that there are 16 jellyfish species in the waters off Sabah (The Star, Jellyfish warning for Sabah, 29 January 2016).
Experts warn of the box jellyfish or killer jellyfish in particular as its stings may lead to fatalities. Death can occur within 5 minutes after being stung by this killer jellyfish. The dry and hot weather is ideal for such free-swimming marine coelenterate to spawn and the box jellyfish bloom is expected between March and June 2019, according to Associate Professor Dr Venmathi Maran of the Borneo Marine Research Institute. (The Star, Attack of the killer jellyfish, 27 February 2019.)