The Irish sea has been called a 'jellyfish soup' by the Marine Conservation Society (MSC), as the UK-based organization warns beach goers to be careful, according to the Irish Weather Online.
The organization said that jellyfish numbers are increasing around the world probably due to global warming and that some irish beaches are being over run.
“These increases have been linked to factors such as pollution, over-fishing and possibly climate change…We should consider jellyfish populations as important indicators of the state of our seas.
Already, some areas of the UK’s seas resemble a ‘jellyfish soup’, such as the Irish Sea where large numbers of moon, lion’s mane, blue and compass jellyfish have already been reported," said MCS's Peter Richardson.
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Just a few weeks ago, Scotland’s Torness nuclear power station had to close after swarms of moon jellyfish blocked the facility’s water intake cooling systems.
“Most jellyfish bloom in summer, but some species can survive the cool winter months too,” says MCS Biodiversity Programme Manager Peter Richardson, “This year, we received our first reports of the huge but harmless barrel jellyfish off North Wales back in early January, and this species has occurred in huge numbers in the Irish Sea and beyond ever since, with reports received from North Somerset to the Firth of Clyde.
Since May we have also received reports of large numbers of several other species of jellyfish from various coastal all sites round the UK – it is another good year for the jellyfish!”
The MSC are asking the public to participate in a jellyfish survey. The survey data is being analyzed in collaboration with the University of Exeter.
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