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Asia Minute: Australia’s Jellyfish Invasion

Charlotte Lawson / Facebook
Charlotte Lawson / Facebook

We’re a little more than two weeks away from the next expected arrival of box jellyfish to Hawai‘i’s beaches. The jellyfish usually show up in larger numbers here nine days after a full moon. But that’s nothing compared to what’s been going on lately in Australia. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.

 

If you wander a bit north of Brisbane on the east coast of Australia, you come across what locals call the “Sunshine Coast.”

And these days, you might want to watch out for the jellyfish.

At a coastal spot called Deception Bay, thousands of “blue blubber” jellyfish have stretched across the sand on recent days.  One witness told the BBC it looked like “bubble wrap across the beach.”

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation quotes a local marine biologist who said the condition is likely a result of an unusual combination of northerly winds and tides along with warmer waters and an absence of predators. 

The Brisbane Times reports a different kind of jellyfish has been flooding ashore a bit further south, but in the same general region.

The bluebottle jellyfish has a sharper sting.  And according to Surf Life Saving Queensland, nearly 23,000 swimmers were treated for those stings during the months of December and January.

According to local health officials, there are no serious risks with the latest jellyfish invasion.  Although there are other, less scientific concerns about the jellyfish.

As one beachgoer told the Brisbane Times, “They’re starting to smell”

Bill Dorman has been the news director at Hawaiʻi Public Radio since 2011.
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