Spain and Portugal for Visitors

Posted by : John Ross on Jul 25, 2007 - 11:26 AM environment

There's a lot of talk about these viscous pests on the Internet lately, and some of it is extremely misleading, particularly some of the advice on treatment of stings. First of all, though, I must warn you that the jellyfish menace is so bad this year that a new beach warning flag has been invented, white with blue jellyfish on, the meaning of which is self-evident. Read on for more jellyfish news and facts, some factual corrections, and useful advice.

The increase in jellyfish numbers worldwide is thought to be due to higher water temperatures, increased pollution (often nutrients to these slimy invertebrates), sea currents which have ceased to keep them out at sea and severe reductions in the populations of their larger predators, fish, turtles, seals, etc. But really bad science is being hurled around by the bucketful. It has been widely reported, for example, that one sample has shown that something like 90% of the biomass in the Black Sea is jellyfish. How many things are as scientifically meaningless as a single sample?.

It is painfully undeniable, though, that tens of thousands of bathers in the Spanish Med have needed sanitary attention in the last few weeks because of jellyfish stings, and it does look as if jellyfish are among the few ecological winners in the global warming process.

All that is no excuse for websites and blogs running old news stories without noting that the danger has remitted, though far from disappeared. Specifically, the swarms of jellyfish which "attacked" bathers in Jávea, Alicante, in the second week of July, stinging over 70 and causing beaches to be closed to bathing, lasted only two or three days, and the beaches were reopened by the following weekend. Why then are websites and blogs, some as respectable as Treehugger, still reporting the story as though it were ongoing?

Even worse is some of the advice being carelessly thrown around. The Treehugger article blithely recommends "Hot water is the best way to treat a sting," but you have to follow the link to find out that the remedy in question is for a bluebottle* sting! The Spanish Red Cross recommends the following if you or someone in your care are stung by a jellyfish or other Coelenterata (sea anemones, for example):
- Do not touch or rub the affected area in case it still contains vessels with venom.
- Wash the affected area with salty water (never fresh water).
- Apply cold (my italics) to the affected area and let it rest.
- Go to the nearest Health Centre (I suggest you ask a lifeguard for help, indeed I would do so at the earliest opportunity).

If you are stung by a weever or a scorpion fish or something else nasty underfoot (I'm afraid this also happens with some frequency in Spain), do the same, except you apply heat by soaking the affected area (foot) in hot water for 30-90 minutes.

For more information about dangerous or bothersome sea life, see this page of Nick Lloyd's great site dedicated to Iberian Nature.

*Not the British housefly, but Physalia, Portuguese man-of-war (called "bluebottle" in Australia). Physalia is much more dangerous than Mediterreanean jellyfish such as the mauve stinger, Pelagia noctiluca, but fortunately prefers oceanic water to the enclosed Med and is not even a "true" jellyfish in zoological terms. So you believe who you like, I'm doing whatever the Cruz Roja lads and lasses tell me to.

The photograph illustrating this article is copyright © OCEANA /Carlos Suárez. You can see it and others full size here.