Cap, sunscreen and desire to stroll along the coast, the return of good weather is sometimes also accompanied by small inconveniences: jellyfish. Be careful where you put your beach towel, thousands of them washed up last weekend in the North Sea. What is happening in our oceans? Is this “invasion” of jellyfish dangerous? Decryption with Jérôme Mallefet from the marine biology laboratory (UCLouvain)
Long weekend rhymes with needing a change of scenery… Ariane, 60, therefore went to Knokke last week with her family. But his walks by the water were somewhat disrupted: “I regularly go to the sea to enjoy with mine and here I was extremely surprised by the number of jellyfish. There were really a lot“, she told us via our orange button Alert us.
For Jérôme Mallefet, professor of marine biology at UCLouvain, this is not abnormal: “Spring is conducive to an explosion in the number of jellyfish. With the return of good weather, these organisms take advantage of the fact that there is a lot of plankton present in the sea to feed themselves well. And like any organism, once it eats well, it reproduces well too.“.
Lots of jellyfish and what’s more, stranded on the sand. This, too, is not surprising: “It’s simply because the winds are blowing in our direction and they are organisms that don’t swim once morest the current. They are therefore carried away by the wind and wash up on the beach.“, explains Jérôme Mallefet.
Marine animal with multiple tentacles, when you see thousands of them, it can seem worrying. Ariane shares her feelings with us: “Seeing them, I immediately said to myself ‘fortunately we are not in the middle of summer with children running barefoot on the beach’. If this summer, the situation is the same, it will be a disaster”. Is she right to be alarmed?
The jellyfish of the Belgian coast: “They are not very stinging”
“Extremely shimmering, shining in the sun“, adjectives used by Ariane, but which Professor Mallefet tempers.”This is the classic jellyfish that we find here. Her nickname is Aurelia Aurita. They are not very stinging. But you still have to be careful“.
Adriane preferred to remain cautious and did not “absolutely untouched“those jellyfish, except with his walking shoes. No choice,”there were too many“. The sexagenarian has adopted the right behavior.
It is imperative to remain calm and not to move
However, Dominique Vandijck, Deputy Director General of the Poison Control Center, recalls the right actions in the event of contact with a jellyfish: “If you touch it, it is imperative to remain calm and not to move because the movements promote the circulation of the venom. Then you can rinse the affected area with sea water. Urinating is useless, it’s an urban legend. In case of complications, a doctor should be consulted.“.
