Thursday, 2nd July 2009
Jellyfish net at St Julians
A 40-metre net is placed in the water around the St Julians waterpolo club to protect players and club members from jellyfish.
A 40-metre jellyfish net has been installed temporarily around the St Julians waterpolo pitch to protect players and club members from the annual invasion.
Club president Brian Schembri said the jellyfish were causing a number of problems for the club and the St Julians community in general.
"Some waterpolo players, especially the younger boys, were quitting and going to other clubs that have pools. We even had to cancel some matches," he said.
The net was installed on June 13, in collaboration with the St Julians local council.
"We have been planning this for a while because of the problems we've had in previous years. It seems to be getting worse every year. This year the jellyfish arrived as early as May," he said.
So far, the nets have been successful. But University biology professor Patrick Schembri warned that while nets could be effective in calm waters in rough weather the problem could get worse.
"If the waves are strong enough you can end up with a jellyfish soup with pieces of pureed jellyfish all over the place. They're very fragile creatures and if they're forced into the meshes they will break apart and the problem will be exacerbated," Prof. Schembri said.
He explained that if the mesh was very fine this would be less likely to happen but that would cause other problems of water circulation.
"Unfortunately, there is no real solution. The best thing would be to go and gently pick up each one with a net," he said.
The St Julians waterpolo club is planning to leave the net in the water until September, before the annual storms and rough weather begin.
Prof. Schembri said Malta had seen more regular jellyfish blooms over the last years due to a number of complex factors including warmer temperatures, overfishing and pollution. Predicting the presence of jellyfish was very difficult because it all depended on water currents.
Once an area was infested, the jellyfish could either stay for a long time or disappear overnight. "They are passive, so they just drift to where the water takes them. I've seen places infested one day and empty the next," he said.
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Comments
we should introduce this 'recipe' to the maltese islands!
the maltese love 'free' things, so they will 'catch' the jellyfish (like the do with rizzi and limpets), and cook them for their evening meal!
that will help cure the problem!
:o)
This great club has a past to be proud of and I for one am hoping that soon the great days will return. Judging by recent results I won't have long to wait so come on you old members and supports get up to the national pool a give your support.
Well done to both club and local council for the net.
You wrote about the number of different factors that is causing the jellyfish bloom, does the over fishing part also include the extiction of the sea turtles? Isn't it a fact that the sea turtles feed on these passive creatures?
the Professor was simply pointing out that good intentions can backfire sometimes. He wasn't pooh-poohing the idea. Why the petty attitude towards him? I think Prof Schembri has a much more experienced background than whatever you can come up with.
however I also hope that the net has been construed in a way to mitigate as much as possible the chances that small fish will be caught up in them
if there are any fish left in our bays, that is!
alternatively each bay can adopt its own pair of turtles or tuna - to make a clean sweep of the stinging creatures....but it seems we have already made a clean sweep of both turtles and tuna ourselves!
Ten out of ten for such action.
Congrats to the commitee and local council.
Can you imagine what experience a tourist flying back home sporting a tentacle tatoo is going to talk about? A job for MTA.