Jellyfish Watch on British Beaches This Summer

18th July 2009

As the school holidays begin, the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) is again calling on British seaside visitors to take part in the national MCS Jellyfish Survey and report their sightings of these bizarre but fascinating creatures. Large jellyfish blooms have already been reported washing up on beaches in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, and as the UK’s seas warm up during the summer, more jellyfish blooms are expected.

 “This year’s jellyfish season started in earnest in April in the Irish Sea, when barrel and moon jellyfish were reported off the Welsh coast. Through May and June, barrel and moon jellyfish reports increased, with moon jellyfish reports coming from elsewhere along with reports of other species such as the beautiful blue and compass jellyfishes,” said Peter Richardson, MCS Biodiversity Programme Manager, “We started receiving reports of stranded Lion’s Mane jellyfish off Wales and Northern Ireland in June. Lion’s mane jellyfish and some other species can sting, so as ever, we are encouraging holidaymakers to take part in our national jellyfish survey, but the key message is look, don’t touch!”

The MCS Jellyfish Survey aims to uncover the little-known habits of British jellyfish, as part of a wider programme to find out more about leatherback turtles that migrate thousands of miles to UK waters to feed on their favourite jellyfish prey each summer. By mapping where and when the jellyfish are seen, MCS hopes to understand more about leatherback turtles while they visit in UK seas.

“The jellyfish survey is an excellent way for people to get involved in finding out more about our threatened seas. It appears that around the world jellyfish numbers are increasing, especially in our temperate seas, and scientists have linked these increases to factors such as pollution, over-fishing and possibly climate change,” said Peter Richardson, “We should consider jellyfish populations as important indicators that show us what happens when we treat our seas badly, telling us that our marine resources are in desperate need of proper management.”

In September last year, MCS President HRH the Prince of Wales launched Silent Seas, a comprehensive assessment of the state of our seas, detailing the damage we are causing to the valuable resources they yield, and including a detailed call for specific action to ensure our oceans and marine wildlife have a future. Silent Seas can be downloaded from www.mcsuk.org

MCS is interested in records of the six larger jellyfish and two jellyfish-like species likely to be encountered around the UK coast and that are known to be leatherback prey. Over 6,000 jellyfish encounters have been reported since the MCS Survey was launched in 2003. The survey data will be fully analysed in collaboration with the University of Exeter, but initial analysis of these public reports is already showing interesting differences in the distribution of the larger jellyfish species around Britain.

A full-colour MCS jellyfish photo-ID guide and recording forms can be downloaded from www.mcsuk.org , where jellyfish encounters can also be reported in detail online.