Spring brings diversity of jellyfish

The onset of spring has yielded a diversity of jellyfish in Maltese waters, the Spot The Jellyfish Campaign said. Besides the ubiquitous mauve stinger pelagia noctiluca, which is present in Maltese waters for most of the year, an abnormally large number of dead salp colonies, which are mostly transparent and resemble plastic bags, has been reported. Salps are much more complex than 'ordinary' jellyfish, being pelagic tunicates and having a primitive brain and even segmented muscles. Also spotted again was a Portuguese man ‘o war, or blue bottle physalia physalis, observed earlier this week at Spinola Bay. This siphonophore species is a colony attached to a gas-filled floating sac known as a pneumatophore, of Atlantic origin, which occasionally reaches Maltese waters. Another floating colony, the innocuous, bluish by-the-wind sailor velella velella, is also very abundant in Maltese waters at the moment. The Spot the Jellyfish Campaign will be affixing beach-side information boards in the next weeks and distributing leaflets to local diving clubs and local councils.