Dive with
Best places to dive with Kakaban golden jellyfish
Mastigias cf. papua
The most numerous of four stingless jellyfish species isolated in Kakaban's marine lake, alongside Aurelia, Tripedalia and Cassiopea. Long isolation has left its stinging cells too weak to penetrate human skin. This is a separate population from Palau's endemic Mastigias papua etpisoni, and Indonesian sources apply both Mastigias papua and Mastigias cf. albipunctatus to it, so the name recorded here is provisional.
Destinations ranked by how reliably kakaban golden jellyfish is seen. The bars show the likelihood by month — never a guarantee. See the full species page for more.
| Month | Likelihood |
|---|---|
| January | occasional |
| February | occasional |
| March | occasional |
| April | occasional |
| May | occasional |
| June | occasional |
| July | occasional |
| August | occasional |
| September | occasional |
| October | occasional |
| November | occasional |
| December | occasional |
Coded conservatively on purpose. The jellyfish largely disappeared from the lake surface in late 2023, prompting a closure of nearly two years; officials attributed the decline to chemicals from swimmers' sunscreen and lotion. Reporting from mid-2025 described mostly juvenile individuals, and reporting from April 2026 described thousands present but concentrated away from the jetty where visitors expect them. Whether you can enter the water at all is unclear — 2025-2026 sources conflict between supervised snorkelling under strict rules and a straight swimming ban. Do not plan a trip around this lake.