Blooms of jellyfish spotted swimming along the Waterford coast
Smack of moon jellyfish, one of the most common species of jellyfish found along the Irish coast.
Swarms of jellyfish have been spotted bobbing along the Waterford coast in spectacular fashion over the past few weeks, with two Waterford locals sharing extraordinary video clips on social media.
One kayaker, Brendan Cosgrave, spotted the breathtaking sight when his group were out at sea at Ballinacourty, turning towards Helvick Head.
In his viral video, Mr Cosgrave’s kayak is surrounded by jellyfish on all sides for what seemed to him to be “like 20, 30 meters in every direction we looked.”
He told Damien Tiernan’s WLR Déise Today show: “There was more jellyfish than there was water. I’m going to say tens of thousands of them. And all big ones, the size of footballs.”
He added, “Apparently, they’re harmless – I wasn’t getting in to find out.”
Over the past week, the coast of Waterford has seen huge swarms of jellyfish, and not only near Helvick Head. Eoin McGarry, another Waterford native, took a video off the coast of Dungarvan Bay where he came across a sea of jellyfish he first thought to be some seaweed in the distance.
Mr McGarry also spoke on Damien Tiernan’s show, saying: “It was a surreal experience. I know from years of diving that the Moon jellyfish are harmless. The more dangerous ones in Irish waters would be the Lion's Mane.”
It's still unclear which species made up the massive bloom but Metropolitan Mayor Cllr Lola O’Sullivan, who is also a Water Safety Ireland volunteer in Waterford, told RTÉ Radio 1 that Compass, Blue and Barrel jellyfish are the most likely jellyfish to be found in Irish water at this time of year.
Damien Haberlin, a marine biologist at University College Cork, stressed to The Irish Times that these jellyfish are harmless to people and will, sadly, be dead soon.
“They’re meant to be there,” said Mr Haberlin. “They’re a normal component of our marine ecosystem and we’d really like people to recognise that.
“People often think that because there’s a lot of them, it’s some sort of abnormality or that it’s caused by the heat but that’s not the case,” he explained.
"It’s usually a convergence of wind and tide that drives them close to shore after they’ve spawned. They have a brief life so once they’ve spawned, they’ll die off.
“And there are exceptional years when you see very large congregations. But this isn’t a sign of anything being out of balance. It’s just how jellyfish are,” he finished.
