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shoal of dead jellyfish on the beach


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Yesterday afternoon the weather being hot and sunny - too hot to stay in the garden - my OH and I decided to go the beach nearest to us for a swim. The water was slightly chilly on going in but felt wonderfully refreshing after a few minutes. To dry off we decided to go for a stroll along the beach. About 20 or 30 metres from where we had been swimming we came across 7 or 8 dead jellyfish at the water's edge, spread over an area of approx 40 metres; they were being carried in by the tide. I must admit I was quite shocked; we occasionally see the odd jellyfish corpse on its own but to see so many in such a short distance made me uneasy. We just could not work out what could have happened to so many of them all at the same time.

Has anyone any ideas? Or seen anything like this for themselves?

Sue [8-)]

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Are you sure they were dead? They could have just been beached by the tide. I grew up at the seaside on the NE coast of England and often saw beached jellyfish. They would be washed back into the sea again when the tide came back in. Sometimes beached seals too. Pat.
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There were some on the beach  in the Vendee  at  Longville  about the size of a frizzbee  and very thick  with  long thick tenticles .....dead ....and been there some time along with the heads of large squid....so this led me to believe that they had possibly  been caught in nets and then thrown off a fishing boat ?
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To partially answer my own query as I have just returned home from the beach.

I was rung by a French friend today who asked if I wanted to go to the beach this afternoon as it was so hot. I happened to mention 'en route' the jellyfish of yesterday. Whilst at the beach - a totally diffrerent one to yesterday - we saw lots more dead jellyfish and I asked her what was happening. Her explanation was that it is a seasonal event here in southern Morbihan and that it occurs every June. She suspects that it might be something to do with the reproductive cycle but she wasn't sure about that aspect of it. So I am going to do some internet research later on this evening and I will report back.

Sue

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This is an interesting problem. I've googled quickly "dead jelly fish" and have found a few recent references which suggest it's partly due to the sea becoming warmer and lack of a cold barrier from river water which normally enters the sea and stops the jellyfish coming near the beach. There has been a lot seen at some spanish beaches too. They warn not to touch even if they're dead as they could still sting. I do envy you being able to go for a sea swim in this hot weather, but look out for any jellyfish in the water! Pat.
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Hi Pat

Yes I did some research too and discovered that it is seasonal; in that the types of jellyfish we see here seem to live for approx 6 months so there will be cadavres about in, say, June and December. The bodies usually disintegrate more quickly in the winter than the summer due to the fiercer nature of the tide and weather combination. As to why there seem to be more bodies than usual this year, this is tentatively explained as: due to the mild winter we have just experienced a larger number of the jellyfish that were born this year have survived than usual, so now they are dying there are more corpses about. Apparently they break up and disintegrate quite quickly.

Just to add my OH and I went for a swim and a look-see last evening at the first beach I mentioned and there were only a handful of corpses about - say 3 or 4 at most.

Isn't nature fascinating? And, yes, we are aware that we are very fortunate to live in such a beautiful, natural and interesting area - especially as we stumbled across it completely by accident.

Sue [:)]

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