Jellyfish blooms creating oceans of slime

After an entertaining time seeking out octopus and cuttlefish among the rocky architecture at the bottom of the Mediterranean sea, my air ran low and it was time to surface. I noticed my fellow divers rising above me were adopting a strange hunched posture, tucking their hands into their armpits and bowing their heads low.

As I rose to a couple of metres below the surface, I saw the problem too late: the shallow water was carpeted with mauve stinger jellyfish (Pelagia noctiluca). There was no avoiding it, reaching the surface meant I had to swim through the flames of stingers.

Onshore, a diver offered to help soothe the burning lashes across my neck, forehead and hands. "I could pee on them," he suggested. I declined.

Locals told me the carpet of jellyfish, known as a bloom, was not an isolated case. My dive instructor said he had seen massive blooms off the coast of Gozo every year since 2000. But never before then. Read More