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Monday 15 June 2009

Summer Jellyfish Threat

It seems that it doesn't matter whether holiday makers visit the beaches of the UK or Spain the threat of the jellyfish is there!

Jellyfish head for UK in bumper numbers

Dangerous and even deadly jellyfish are poised to enter British waters in bumper numbers this summer, scientists are warning. Bathers on UK beaches are being warned to watch out after an unusually high number of early sightings, ahead of the usual summer peak.

Blooms of jellyfish covering 62 square miles (160 sq km) – or the size of 22,167 Wembley football pitches – have already been spotted off the coast of Wales. Experts believe the number of jellyfish in UK waters has increased sharply in recent years, possibly as a result of warming seas linked to climate change, or a decline in some fish stocks which reduces competition for food.

Jasper Copping, Daily Telegraph

Spain warns of summer jellyfish invasion on Mediterranean beaches

Visitors to Spain's beaches have been warned of an influx of stinging jellyfish off the Mediterranean coast this summer. Holidaymakers are being warned to be vigilant when they take to the water and beware of the stinging menace in the shallows.

For the first time in a decade the potentially deadly Portuguese Man o' War, which are not strictly jellyfish but floating colonies of microscopic hydrozoans, has been spotted close to the beaches of the Costa del Sol. Scientists fear the creatures could spread along the coast of Spain and invade waters around the Balearic Islands after venturing away from its north Atlantic habitat and through the Strait of Gibraltar.

Fiona Govan, Daily Telegraph

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