{"id":713614,"date":"2026-07-27T13:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713614\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T13:24:14","slug":"5-rare-marine-wildlife-spotted-in-brighton-and-hove-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/713614\/","title":{"rendered":"5 rare marine wildlife spotted in Brighton and Hove waters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  Dolphins, Rottingdean Coastline<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A conservation group has reported an increase in dolphin sightings (Image: Theresa Turner)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  On Friday (July 17) a pod of dolphins surfaced remarkably close to the shoreline, causing joyful surprise in onlookers.\n<\/p>\n<p>  Barrel Jellyfish, Brighton Beach<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>Jellyfish off coast of Seaford (Image: Tiger Cox)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  A <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theargus.co.uk\/news\/26145571.large-barrel-jellyfish-spotted-floating-seaford\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">massive barrel jellyfish was spotted on July 13<\/a>, with local beachgoers capturing footage of the large specimen.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Rising sea temperatures have resulted in earlier and larger plankton blooms, causing a surge in the species to appear on the UK coastline at more unusual times in the year.\n<\/p>\n<p>  Smooth-Hound Shark, Brighton Beach<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>A walker spotted what he thought was a shark fin protruding from the water (Image: Grant Henderson)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theargus.co.uk\/news\/24817092.rare-exciting-sussex-animal-sightings-2024\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">A shark spotting near Madeira Drive (June 24)<\/a> sparked fear and intrigue.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  However, upon closer inspection, the Brighton Seafront Office confirmed that it was a harmless smooth-hound shark or dogfish: small, shy sharks that are completely harmless to humans, putting any initial fear to rest.\n<\/p>\n<p>  Ocean Sunfish, Near Brighton Marina<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>The ocean sunfish was spotted by Kurt Lander of Yellowfin Charter Fishing (Image: Kurt Lander\/Yellowfin Charter Fishing)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theargus.co.uk\/news\/26224730.unusual-sighting-ocean-sunfish-off-brighton-marina\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">On June 19, an ocean sunfish was spotted<\/a> &#8211; seen one mile off of Brighton Marina.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Known for their size and distinctive shape, ocean sunfish, scientifically known as Mola mola, can grow more than ten feet long and weigh over 5,000 pounds.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  Readers were entranced, with one person describing the fish as &#8220;alien-looking&#8221; with its massive features.\n<\/p>\n<p>  Atlantic Puffin, Hove Seafront<\/p>\n<p>\n  <img   width=\"100%\"\/>The Atlantic puffin after being rescued (Image: Brighton and Hove Wildlife Rescue)\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theargus.co.uk\/news\/25756490.atlantic-puffin-washes-hove-beach-storm-goretti\/?ref=ed_direct\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Another rare animal spotting, despite being earlier on in the year (January 11), was the Atlantic Puffin.<\/a> These brightly orange-beaked creatures are rarely ever seen on the Sussex coast, and stunned onlookers.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n  It was handled carefully by the Brighton &amp; Hove Wildlife and Rescue Service and then transferred into the care of the East Sussex Wildlife Rescue and Ambulance Services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dolphins, Rottingdean Coastline A conservation group has reported an increase in dolphin sightings (Image: Theresa Turner) On Friday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[90,56,54,55,4407],"class_list":["post-713614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}