Jellyfish Warning Lowered

EXPERTS have lowered the level of alert for Portuguese man o’ war jellyfish in Alicante province.

The last three specimens of the dangerous sea creature were recorded at the end of April in Benidorm and El Campello, and since then no new sightings have been reported.

It is not a common type of jellyfish in the area, although several of them have been seen in the waters of San Juan, Benidorm and Calpe over the last few years, when they were dragged up by sea currents from warmer waters in Cadiz and Huelva in southern Spain.

According to the Coastal Ecology Institute in El Campello, it is possible for the Portuguese man o’ war to appear along the coast of Alicante between spring and the beginning of summer if the necessary weather and hydrographic conditions occur – but so far there is no reason for alarm, they say.

The experts add that the risk of finding the jellyfish in the waters of Alicante will progressively drop throughout the month and by the end of July it will be “practically inexistent”.

Either way, the scientists will continue to monitor the area to report on any possible sightings throughout the summer.

The Portuguese man o’ war is commonly found in warm waters in the open sea, generally in tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.

Its presence in Alicante in June coincided with several weeks of prolonged heat that also led to an increase in bathers at the province’s beaches.

In fact it was several swimmers and divers who reported the presence of the creature, which was then confirmed by the Coastal Ecology Institute.

The experts point out that while the arrival of individual specimens is not that strange in the spring and early summer, the situation reported five years ago when several sightings were recorded as late as July was a freak one-off.