A poisonous jellyfish species is spreading on Spain’s holiday beaches. For bathers, contact can be fatal. Communities are alarmed.
San Sebastián – Some European countries are currently struggling with a real plague: numerous jellyfish spread out on beaches in the high season of all places and scare away tourists. In Mallorca, for example, the animals caused unpleasant encounters and particularly affected children. Beaches in Spain are now pulling the ripcord.
Tribe: | cnidarians |
Happen: | Spain, Portugal, Caribbean |
Symptoms of bites: | Red painful wheals that can lead to allergic shocks |
Jellyfish invasion in Spain: authorities close holiday beaches
Like the portal, among other things 20minutos.es writes, the Basque Country in particular is experiencing a severe jellyfish invasion this summer. This is an extremely poisonous species: the Portuguese galley. It can be found this year on many popular holiday beaches such as Barinatxe, Arrigunaga or La Concha in the city of San Sebastián, which is the most affected. Locals and tourists should be careful when swimming: the jellyfish pose a health risk to humans.
They carry a mixture of poisons in their tentacles, which causes painful red wheals if they come into contact with the slightest skin contact. These can even last for several days. For people with a weakened immune system, such as the elderly or children, a so-called sting poses the risk of an allergic shock, which can be fatal. Due to this danger, some communities in northern Spain have decided to close the beaches to bathers until the jellyfish plague has been brought under control. The marine animals were even discovered in rather atypical places: Suddenly, jellyfish, for example, also populated Vienna.
Poisonous jellyfish: Portuguese galley causes problems for Spain
In the province of Cantabria on the Bay of Biscay, hundreds of examples of the Portuguese galley have been fished out of the water in recent weeks, as the Spanish news portal reports. They can be recognized by their blue, white and red-violet tentacles, which can grow up to 50 centimeters long. Your “body” looks like a bluish shimmering gas bubble.
It is not possible to predict when the situation in the holiday regions in Spain will ease up again. According to authorities, the increase in sea temperature and algae growth could be the reason for the extreme spread of the jellyfish species. (asc)
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