Jellyfish Invasion: Advice for British Swimmers

With their long tentacles and indiscriminate stinging jellyfish are feared by beach goers across the world. Reports today claim that this summer, Britain is set for a jellyfish invasion and jellyfish are set to invade a beach near you. Families that are holidaying in Britain this year are being told to look out for jellyfish on Britain's beaches this summer. Here is the latest advice for swimmers this summer.

According to the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), lion's mane, moon and other species of jellyfish are set to invade Britain's beaches this summer. It has been described as the 'jellyfish soup' and the MCS believe that the numbers of jellyfish in British waters will increase throughout the summer and have urged all beachgoers to keep track of the invasion by reporting sightings. The agency has warned swimmers not to touch the jellyfish as they do have a sting.

500 moon jellyfish were washed up on Portobello beach with large numbers spotted at East Beach, North Berwick. Beach goers are being urged not to panic as none of the jellyfish normally found in U.K waters is lethal. The advice is to observe the jellyfish from a safe distance but do not touch as the lion mane jellyfish do have a moderate sting.

As well as this the MCS have urged all beach goers this summer to report all sightings of jellyfish and have urged swimmers to take part in the survey in order for the MCS to understand more about why there has been such a rise in jellyfish this summer. MCS biodiversity program manager Peter Richardson said: 'There is strong evidence that jellyfish numbers are increasing around the world, including UK seas, and these increases have been linked to factors such as pollution, over-fishing and possibly climate change. 'We should consider jellyfish populations as important indicators of the state of our seas, and the MCS jellyfish survey helps provide some of the information we need to understand more about them.'

LION'S MANE - From 50cm to 2m in diameter. Large, reddish brown umbrella-shaped bell with a mass of long, thin hair-like tentacles. The jellyfish has a moderate sting with a rating of Sting 2/3.

For more information on the Jellyfish click here