Scotland : Killer jellyfish spotted

SCOTLAND is under threat of being besieged by a horde of exotic killer jellyfish. Sightings of the mauve stinger – which devastated salmon farms on the west coast in 2007 – have led experts to believe that the Mediterranean natives have returned to Scotland's coasts. The jellyfish – which travel in massive swarms, or "blooms", numbering billions – have recently been spotted off the coasts of Orkney, Lewis and Fair Isle. Fisherman John Franklin from Tobermory, Mull, spotted one bloom when he was sailing off the coast of Skye. He said: "I was out in the boat when I saw a couple of tiny jellyfish, then I saw more, then I realised there were millions. "There was a bright red mass 30 yards wide that stretched perhaps 200 yards. "It was like a river of blood cutting through the sea – heavens knows how many there were."

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I doubt there will be many people in the icy cold waters of Scotland this time of year anyway.

[edit on 1-12-2009 by VitalOverdose]

MY wife and I went to Malta for our honeymoon back in 2005... We spent loads of time snorkelling and scuba diving but while there noticed that the sea was FULL of jellyfish... Thousands of them... Everywhere...

They were not the dangerous type, although you would get a nasty sting, but it prevented lots of people from swimming.

Anyway we got chatting to some of the locals and asked one of them why there was so many jelly fish. He said that the situation had been slowly getting worse and that it was down to a mixture of sea temperature rise (creating the ideal conditions for jellyfish blooms) and the fact that fisherman have now hunted the Mediterranean turtles (a natural predator of the jellyfish) to near extinction.

Star + Flag for interesting topic

I cant help wondering how a smack of jellyfish can get so large it must take some effort for them to stay in a group. Its not like they even have eyes.

I think at this point, with conditions like these developing in many regions of the sea, we should start netting jellies in mass. Something needs to be done..

Originally posted by DaMod
I think at this point, with conditions like these developing in many regions of the sea, we should start netting jellies in mass. Something needs to be done..

Why? The sea is for them to live and thrive in, not for us to frollick and play in. It is their natural habitat, and we have no place messing with it. So what if it infringes on human activity, we can build nets to fence off beaches if it's that much of a problem.

*hero of the sea creatures *

Live and let live.