Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Venomous purple jellyfish invading Britain.

From Daily Mail:
Swarms of a highly venomous jellyfish that turns beaches into no-go areas are invading Britain's coastal waters for the first time, scientists said.

The growing number of mauve stingers - fist-sized creature that packs a hefty sting - is being linked to the rise in sea temperatures over the last few years.

The pink and purple jellyfish may be small, but they can cover hundreds of thousands of square miles of ocean in a single 'bloom'.

Until a few years ago, they were rarely seen in British waters, preferring the warmer conditions of the Mediterranean and Mid Atlantic.

But over the last three years, hundreds of millions of them have appeared in the north east Atlantic -and they are getting closer to our shores.

However, in 2007 a 10-mile square bloom of mauve stingers killed 100,000 salmon at a fish farm in Northern Ireland causing damage estimated at £1million.

No comments: