Jellyfish: no special measures planned

Newsdesk THE Balearic Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Margalida Moner, yesterday ruled out the local Government taking “additional” measures to cope with possible plagues of jellyfish on Balearic beaches, which she described as “a natural phenomenom, very difficult to control”. In answer to a question by the Balearic MP, Andreu Crespi, about the Government's plans for a possible invasion of jellyfish, Moner stated that the Fisheries Department had adopted measures, as they do every summer, to deal with the massive presence of these creatures. This consists of 40 boats of the “Pelican” type from the local Ministry for the Environment working towards catching the jellyfish. Crespi admitted that catching the jellyfish was a complicated business and warned of their proliferation in some areas of the Mediterranean, especially the pelagia nocticula variety whose sting, he insisted, is especially dangerous to children, who could suffer grave consequences. Moner said that the measures being taken are: advising bathers on those beaches where jellyfish have been spotted; and also having health workers in these places to attend to jellyfish stings speedily. A plague of jellyfish has been seen in the last few weeks throughout the western Mediterranean, according to experts from the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies and the Spanish Oceanography Institute.