Jellyfish threaten Mediterranean beach tourism this summer
Photo Credit: A Pelagia noctiluca jellyfish off the coast of Corsica. Flickr / Arnaud Abadie
Skift Take
Perhaps the EU would have had better luck encouraging foreign airlines to pay their carbon emissions fees if it had reminded travelers that with global warming comes giant stinging jellyfish along their favorite beaches.
Scientists across the Mediterranean say a surge in the number of jellyfish this year threatens not just the biodiversity of one of the world's most overfished seas but also the health of tens of thousands of summer tourists.
"I flew along a 300km stretch of coastline on 21 April and saw millions of jellyfish," said Professor Stefano Piraino of Salento University in southern Italy. Piraino is the head of a Mediterranean-wide project to track the rise in the number of jellyfish as global warming and overfishing clear the way for them to prosper.
"Citizen scientists" armed with smartphones and a special app are now tracking them along thousands of miles of Mediterranean coastline. Population growth has contin
