Invisible invaders blow in for Spanish holiday season sting

British holidaymakers heading for the Spanish costas were warned yesterday of a flotilla of almost undetectable jellyfish that have left hundreds of swimmers with painful stings.

Thousands of the invertebrates have converged on the beaches of the Costa Blanca, which is one of the most popular resorts for British tourists in Spain.

Since Sunday 700 people have suffered stings, whereas normally only four or five people each day would fall victim to jellyfish. On Tuesday 380 swimmers were left nursing painful stings in three areas of the same coastline.

The jellyfish are more dangerous to swimmers because they are small and transparent. Authorities in some areas, including Elche, have raised the red flag to stop swimmers from going into the water.

“I was in the water with my two-year-old Thomas when this jellyfish came right up to us,” Lucile Papais, 39, from Argyll in Scotland, said. “If I had not grabbed him quickly my son would have been stung.”

Authorities blamed the menace at the height of the tourist season on a combination of strong currents, northerly
winds and warm waters, which the jellyfish like.

“In the five or six years I have been in this job I have never seen anything like this,” Juan Carlos Castellanos, of the Elche tourism department, said. “The swimmers could probably not even see them.”

Ignacio Franco, a jellyfish expert at the Centre for Oceanography in Murcia, southeast Spain, said that winds from the north and northeast were to blame for the invasion.

Mr Franco said that in the past most swimmers who suffered jellyfish stings on Spanish beaches were victims of pelagia noctiluca, a species that is known more commonly as the mauve stinger.

The Portuguese Man-o’-War, a violet sack with tentacles extending for metres, has stung more than 300 people during the past few weeks in Cantabria and the Basque Country on the northern coast. The stings from this species can be more dangerous for victims, causing welts and allergic reactions. In rare cases Physalia physalis can cause death.

Despite the invasion of the Costa Blanca, marine biologists said that there had been fewer jellyfish stings in the Balearic Islands, the Costa Brava in northeastern Spain and Costa del Sol in the south.

Scientists said that holidaymakers in Spain would have to get used to avoiding the creatures in years to come - spanish car hire companies along the affected areas are already including details of the menace for their customers.

The lower salt levels closer to shore had previously prevented jellyfish from bothering swimmers, Jose Maria Gili,
a jellyfish specialist at the Institute of Marine Sciences in Barcelona, said. However, global warming had reduced rainfall and increased salt levels, meaning that the natural barrier near the coast had been eroded.

Experts also blamed over-fishing, which has cut stocks of tuna and swordfish, which are two natural predators of
jellyfish.

Mr Gili said that, with fewer competitors for the plankton that the jellyfish live off, the population would
increase.