MTA launches Med-Jelly app for mobile

As another bathing season approaches, the Malta Tourism Authority has striven to make bathers’ experience as stress-free as possible through a number of conventional and innovative beach management initiatives.

The MTA has recently supported the development of a Med-Jelly app, in conjunction with the University of Malta through the IOI-MOC and the Department of Biology.

The Med-Jelly app is a useful tool in assisting visitors to the Maltese beaches to make an informed decision about their choice of beach and treatment protocol if they are stung by jellyfish. This app is full of scientifically valid, easy-to-digest information to best address the jellyfish phenomenon.

The fully functional Med-Jelly application will be available for download on Android platforms within a couple of weeks and on iOS (iPhone) systems sometime in May.

A waterproof booklet was also produced within the Med-Jelly Risk project. This booklet contains detailed sting treatment information for different types of jellyfish and will be distributed on all local beaches in the coming summer months.

A jellyfish photography competition is also being launched. Within this competition, participants can submit photos of individual jellyfish species or of blooms, both through their smart phone (after downloading the Med-Jelly application), or with an underwater camera. Attractive prizes will be awarded for the best two submissions under each category and the top twelve photos will grace a 2015 calendar being printed later in the year. Visit http://jellyrisk.eu for more details relating to the competition.

The Med-Jelly Risk Project is funded through the ENPI-CBC Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme 2007-2013, which is co-financed by the European Union. The multilateral cross-border cooperation "Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme" is part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and of its financing instrument (European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument - ENPI). The programme is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (90% EU funds; 10% MT funds).

Dr Alan Deidun from IOI-MOC commented that “The smart phone application being launched was developed within the Med-Jelly Risk project, and draws on the support from the local jellyfish spotting campaign – Spot the Jellyfish (www.ioikids.net/jellyfish) – with the jellyfish forecast provided by the same application being possible as a result of data being submitted to this 5-year-long local campaign”.

MTA’s CEO Mr Josef Formosa Gauci went on to say that “the MTA fully supports the development and implementation of a smart phone app, namely Med-Jelly, in line with similar ongoing efforts in other parts of the Mediterranean, such as Italy, Spain and Tunisia, which are direct competitors of our country within the tourism sector. The MTA supports such an initiative as it provides users with salient, useful information about our beaches such as the facilities they offer, accessibility, weather conditions and even a jellyfish occurrence forecast”.