Nomadic jellyfish moving further west into the Mediterranean

The Spot the Jellyfish campaign has resulted in evidence showing that one of the most invasive and impacting marine species in the Mediterranean, the nomadic jellyfish rhopilema nomadica, is moving further West in the Mediterranean.

The species has been recorded off the western coast of Sicily, at Levanzo in the Aegadian Islands, and off the south-western coast of Sardinia.

According to campaign coordinator Alan Deidun, this Indo-Pacific species has moved progressively west ever since its introduction in the Mediterranean Sea in the late 1970s, closing off beaches by virtue of this painful sting and coastal power plants in Israel by clogging cooling water intake pipes, as well as hampering fishing activities through its sheer numbers.

The species was previously recorded in Maltese waters in 2011 by the late Shaun Arrigo, but it has reportedly not formed large aggregations so far, as in other neighbouring countries.

The discovery has been reported in a scientific paper currently in press within the Bioinvasions Records journal.