Last Friday, a friend of Dennis Foote and his son were fishing in Dewey Lake when they spotted “millions” of freshwater jellyfish.

“They said, ‘What the heck is this?’ Right there on Garrett Road. They can grow up to the size of a quarter,” Foote said Tuesday after researching online.

“I’ve been around these lakes for years, putting docks in, and I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.

“Somehow, they must have come over from Brazil on a plant. They like calm water and when they get cold they go dormant,” Foote said. “I’m going out (Wednesday) in the boat and see if I can find a big cloud of them.”

Is there such a thing as a true freshwater jellyfish?

No, not really, according to one Web site,

www.aquaticcommunity.com, but there is a species that looks like a jellyfish, reproduces like a jellyfish and is known under the common name freshwater jellyfish: Craspedacusta sowerbyi.

This species is distinguished from true jellyfish by a structure called a velum that freshwater jellyfish has and marine jellyfish lack.

However, most people still look at Craspedacusta sowerbyi as a jellyfish.

It originates from the Amazon area of South America but can today be found on all continents.

The freshwater jellyfish has mainly been introduced to new areas unintentionally, such as shipments containing other plants and animals from the Amazon.

They are not very common and are primarily found in slow-moving and standing waters, especially in reservoirs, dams and slow-moving channels, feeding on microscopic zooplankton. Freshwater jellyfish are quite small and only reach 0.8 inch in diameter. It is unsure whether these jellyfish can sting humans; some scientist believe that they can’t penetrate human skin with their stinger cells while some humans swear they have been stung by freshwater jellyfish.

Another Web site, freshwaterjellyfish.org said they can be seen usually in late summer.

August and September are peak months for jellyfish sightings in Pennsylvania, for example, when lake water is warm and food is abundant. Jellyfish will be floating or swimming gently just below the surface of the water. They are easily seen by the naked eye.

They often surface in large numbers called “blooms.”

Sunny days are especially good for spotting jellyfish.