SOME of the most common - yet mysterious - creatures from the world's oceans will be finding a new home later this year.

The Scarborough Sea Life Centre, North Yorkshire, is a staging a major exhibition on the jellyfish from Easter.

Jellyfish live in all climates, can range in size from a few inches to more than 100ft, and are more than 90 per cent water.

They are regarded as the Jeyklls and Hydes of the marine world, with their harmless, appearance belying highly-efficient hunting tactics and weaponry that, in some cases, can even kill.

"They will star in six separate tanks in an area lit by ultra-violet," said manager Iain Hawkins.

"Information panels alongside each display will be luminous, and we will have a suitably hypnotic soundtrack.

"The whole effect should be quite mystical, and that will be very appropriate given the strange and fascinating creatures on display."

Visitors will discover that, contrary to popular belief, only about 70 of the 2,000 known species can deliver a painful sting. Most deadly is the Australian box jellyfish, which packs more venom into its tiny body than a king cobra. A sting can kill someone in less than four minutes.

But most of the species visiting UK shores are relatively harmless.

The sting of the most common species around our coast, the moon jellyfish, is too mild for most people to feel.

The same cannot be said of the Portuguese Man-o-War, an occasional visitor which can trail 50ft tentacles beneath its curious floating body and packs a painful, potentially fatal sting.