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Huge Jellyfish Invasion Of Cornwall & Devon

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Anonymous

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"A huge mass stranding of By-the-wind Sailors, Velella velella, occurred all along the north Cornish coast from Sennen Cove (near land's End) up to Polzeath (near Padstow) and beyond. (As the gull flies this is a distance of 25 miles and with all the coves and inlets the shoreline is over double this.) Coming in on the top of the tide, there were hundreds of millions of them, all large, the largest I found was 85 mm, and all them were intact. Tens of thousands of Goose Barnacles, Lepas anatifera, were washed up along the strandline."
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/News2004.htm


http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/outdoors/nature/2004/jellyfish.shtml
"Hurricane Alex is being blamed for washing ashore thousands of Compass Jellyfish in the South West.........Marine experts believe the jellyfish - which can sting if touched - have been caught up in the rough seas caused by Hurricane Alex.

They have been spotted on beaches on the north and south coasts of Devon and Cornwall, and they are also out in our coastal waters.

The presence of so many compass jellyfish is good news for the region's leatherback turtle.

The endangered turtles rely on the jellyfish as their staple diet, and it's hoped more will be seen off our coast as a result of the influx.


Jellyfish washed ashore at Cawsands, just south of Plymouth
Yachtsmen and boat owners have reported seeing hundreds and thousands of the jellyfish, which have brown lines on their bell and are distinctive for their long trailing tentacles."

i hope to go and have a look tommorow..aparently the stench is incredible!
 
The sea off Herne Bay on the North Kent coast used to be plagued with small jellyfish. Then again, having Victorian sewer outfalls probably didn't help.

On a hot summer day, on an especially high tide, my family were walking along the promenade (cue Victorian seaside music). Glancing over the railing, my brother pointed out ... a portugese man'o'war! Very long, sail billowing, quite beautiful ... but disturbing.

I guess we can look forward to more of this with global warming, increased storm activity etc.
 
well we went to Porth Kidney beach just down from Leleant (near hayle)..at first we couldnt find any then the odd one...they are only about 2 to 3 inches long ...iridecent mauve with a sticking up "sail".... we found little clumps of fairly intact and fresh ones sitting felornly on the sane then....the wind changed and HELL...we say big clumps of them rotting and the niff was somic to smell i can tell you.... reminded me of youthfull fishing experditions and opening the tackle box after it has been packed away full of fish slime for a couple of week!... there were hundreds of thousands of em tangled in weed and rotting. Looking over to gwithian beech one could se a thin mauve line along the tide line all the length of its four miles of sand...collected soem of thier little "sails" ..a citilagiouse skeliton..lacey and flexible...
 
Shame - I love that area. Every time I visit Cornwall, I always aim to spend the entire day at The Bucket of Blood.

Lacey? Flexible? Hmmm.

Aha! The cornish fashion trend of wearing dead jellyfish as sexy undies! Anne Summers proposes to stock as new line!
:D
 
Stormkhan said:
.

Aha! The cornish fashion trend of wearing dead jellyfish as sexy undies! Anne Summers proposes to stock as new line!
:D
Click to expand...

but the smell....actuly ive met some girls.......
 
I wondered what they were! and now I know........:) Just got back from polzeath yesterday, they really stunk yuckkkkkk!!!! weird little things!
 
Pixibelle said:
I wondered what they were! and now I know........:) Just got back from polzeath yesterday, they really stunk yuckkkkkk!!!! weird little things!
Click to expand...

yep thats devon girls for you.... wheres me coat....under that truck ah..
 
Do jellyfish still plague Cornwall and Devon?

The war against jellyfish continues in Germany and Sweden.

Ninety people at a single beach in Germany were treated for jellyfish stings in just three days, amid a surge of the creatures in European waters.

Regional newspaper Ostsee Zeitung said "tens of thousands" of lion's mane jellyfish washed ashore at the weekend.

The lion's mane is the largest jellyfish species, and while its sting is rarely fatal it often requires medical attention.

One of the 90 people affected had a severe allergic reaction.

Jellyfish numbers have dropped since the weekend peak, but the relief may only be temporary.

Germany's lifeguard association said only a few specimens had been counted on Tuesday.

But jellyfish tend to drift on currents, meaning water temperatures or a change in the wind could wash them ashore in droves again.

Sudden plagues of jellyfish have been spotted across Europe in recent weeks.

Sweden's west coast has suddenly found itself home to the clinging jellyfish - a species that Swedish broadcaster SVT said had not been seen there in 88 years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45031072
 
ramonmercado said:
Do jellyfish still plague Cornwall and Devon?

The war against jellyfish continues in Germany and Sweden.

Ninety people at a single beach in Germany were treated for jellyfish stings in just three days, amid a surge of the creatures in European waters.

Regional newspaper Ostsee Zeitung said "tens of thousands" of lion's mane jellyfish washed ashore at the weekend.

The lion's mane is the largest jellyfish species, and while its sting is rarely fatal it often requires medical attention.

One of the 90 people affected had a severe allergic reaction.

Jellyfish numbers have dropped since the weekend peak, but the relief may only be temporary.

Germany's lifeguard association said only a few specimens had been counted on Tuesday.

But jellyfish tend to drift on currents, meaning water temperatures or a change in the wind could wash them ashore in droves again.

Sudden plagues of jellyfish have been spotted across Europe in recent weeks.

Sweden's west coast has suddenly found itself home to the clinging jellyfish - a species that Swedish broadcaster SVT said had not been seen there in 88 years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45031072
Click to expand...

And good luck to the EU with these projects!

An EU project called GoJelly has been launched to take the "annoying and even dangerous" creatures and turn them into something useful. While their main project is creating a microplastic filter out of jellyfish mucus to clean the oceans, they also think jellyfish populations could be controlled if humans ate them. They plan a jellyfish cookbook, and promise that the finished foodstuffs won't taste bad - "as long as the end product is no longer slimy".
 
Won't they keep slipping off your fork?
 
I like Ogden Nash's words on the subject:

"Who wants my jellyfish?
I'm not sellyfish !"
 
Secrets of the immortal jellyfish.

Scientists in Spain have unlocked the genetic code of the “immortal jellyfish” – a creature capable of repeatedly reverting into a juvenile state – in hopes of unearthing the secret to their unique longevity, and find new clues to human aging.

In their study, published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Maria Pascual-Torner, Victor Quesada and colleagues at the University of Oviedo mapped the genetic sequence of Turritopsis dohrnii, the only known species of jellyfish able to repeatedly revert back into a larval stage after sexual reproduction.

Like other types of jellyfish, the T. dohrnii goes through a two-part life cycle, living on the sea floor during an asexual phase, where its chief role is to stay alive during times of food scarcity. When conditions are right, jellyfish reproduce sexually.

Although many types of jellyfish have some capacity to reverse aging and revert to a larval stage, most lose this ability once they reach sexual maturity, the authors wrote. Not so for T. dohrnii.

“We’ve known about this species being able to do a little evolutionary trickery for maybe 15-20 years,” said Monty Graham, a jellyfish expert and director of the Florida Institute of Oceanography, who was not involved in the research.

This trick earned the species its nickname as the “immortal jellyfish,” a term Graham admits is a bit hyperbolic.

The study was aimed at understanding what made this jellyfish different by comparing the genetic sequence of T. dohrnii to that of Turritopsis rubra, a close genetic cousin that lacks the ability to rejuvenate after sexual reproduction.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/08/31/europe/immortal-jellyfish-study-spain-scn-intl-hnk/index.html
 
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