European jellyfish surge threatens tourists
A surge in the number of Pelagia noctiluca – or mauve stinger – jellyfish along the Mediterranean coastline has prompted scientists to warn that the health of tens of thousands of tourists is at risk. Overfishing and climate change have both been blamed for the rise in jellyfish numbers, and there is a region-wide project that aims to track the rise that has seen ‘citizen scientists’, armed with a smartphone and a special app, track the movement of the jellyfish along coastlines. Professor Stefano Piraino of Salento University is head of the project, and warned that tourists are already suffering as a result of the influx of jellyfish: “There are now beaches on the island of Lampedusa, which receives 300,000 tourists a year, where people can only swim for a week in the summer.” He added: “The socio-economic impact on tourist areas is huge. We are losing millions of euros.”
Josep Gili, a researcher at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, said that the type of jellyfish seen so far this year, mauve stinger, is more poisonous than the ones usually seen along the Catalonian coast. He added: “We have seen banks several kilometres long and with a density of 30 to 40 jellyfish per square metre. The ones we have found this spring are particularly big. Normally, that size of jellyfish does not reach the coast because of the temperature of the water.” Spain is far from alone in suffering from high numbers of jellyfish, with Sardinia, Sicily and Malta also reporting problems; while in the eastern Mediterranean there have been reports of increasing numbers of jellies near beaches in Israel and Lebanon.