Europe's beaches braced for invasion of the jellyfish

BRUSSELS - A plague of jellyfish along Europe's beaches has become the latest environmental hazard to be blamed on global warming.

Holidaymakers heading for Mediterranean beaches are being warned to prepare for an unprecedented invasion of the invertebrates whose sting can, in extreme cases, cause heart failure.

Oceana, which campaigns to protect and restore the world's oceans, attributes the rise in the number of jellyfish to a rise in water temperature because of climate change. It also highlights over-fishing of natural predators.

The group sent a research boat around Spain's coastal waters and concluded that many beaches are suffering an "invasion by this species" with some "concentrations of more than 10 jellyfish per sq m".

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