Jellyfish mistaken for deadly species

A man was alarmed to see a box jellyfish, which he mistook for a deadly species, at the Ta’ Xbiex yacht marina last Thursday.

Andrew Agius Delicata took photos of the creature, which he and his friend William Attard McCarthy believed was a Chironex fleckeri, a venomous species of box jellyfish native to coastal waters from northern Australia and New Guinea north to the Philippines and Vietnam.

However, marine biologist Alan Deidun said when contacted there was no need for panic since the species shown, although a box jellyfish, was not the dreaded Chironex fleckeri but a Carybdea marsupialis, or the box jellyfish native to the Mediterranean.

“This species has a much milder sting than the Chironex and causes mainly limited skin rashes.”

The Chironex fleckeri box jellyfish, also known as a sea wasp, is widely believed to be the world’s most lethal jellyfish because of the numerous incidents resulting in injury or death to humans. The jellyfish has been known to kill people a mere three minutes after stinging them.

Meanwhile, speaking about last month’s sightings, made through the Spot the Jellyfish initiative, Dr Deidun said a rare blue button, or Porpita porpita, was spotted in Maltese waters along with a cigar jelly (Olindias phoshphorica). Both were also usually mistaken for stinging jellyfish but were harmless, he said. The creatures are usually found in tropical waters.

Other unusual species seen last month included ctenophores, or comb jellies, which generally do not have stinging tentacles and are just “sticky” instead.

The common purple jellyfish seen in Maltese waters, the mauve stinger (Pelagia noctiluca), subsided in July when compared to June, with sightings dropping by about 50 per cent month on month.

The Spot the Jellyfish initiative encourages people to phone in with reports of jellyfish sightings so as to keep track of jellyfish populations in the seas around Malta.

The initiative follows a citizen science approach. It relies on the collaboration of the public, mariners, divers and youngsters through their teachers and parents to record the presence and location of different jellyfish through the use of a dedicated reporting leaflet.

The leaflet is being widely distributed and can be downloaded from www.ioikids.net/jellyfish, which has snippets and anecdotes about different jellyfish species. With the support of the Malta Tourism Authority, large posters have been put at major bays on both islands.

The reporting is done by simply matching a jellyfish with a simple visual identification guide, giving the date and time of the sighting and indicating the number seen if there were more than one.

Sightings can be also reported online, submitted by SMS on 7922 2278 or by sending an e-mail to ioimoc@um.edu.mt.

Strange jellyfish not included on the leaflet should be caught and kept in a bucketful of seawater. Then send an e-mail to alan.deidun@um.edu.mt for retrieval to attempt a definite identification of the species. If this is not possible, photos should be taken.

Over 200 records of different jellyfish species have been submitted so far and can be viewed online at 193.188.45.233/jellyfish/stats.html.