Thousands of jellyfish swarm near Israel, mesmerizing images reveal

There are a lot of Jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea close to the port city of Haifa. The Jerusalem Post reported that the sea was "bedazzled with thousands of white dots."

Officials with Israel's Nature and Parks Authority (NPA) captured footage of the swarming nomad jellyfish in Haifa Bay on July 20 using aerial drones, and they shared the footage on the agency's website. People are advised by the NPA not to swim in the area because of the risk of painful Jellyfish sting.

NPA representatives said in a statement (opens in new tab) that pollution and climate change may be to blame for the high concentration ofJellyfish individuals.

Ruthy Yahel, an NPA marine ecologist, said in the statement that the explosion in jellyfish numbers this summer could have catastrophic consequences for the marine environment.

RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU...

"We see a lot of damage from it in many areas, such as ecological competition with the fish for food, economic damage, clogging of desalination plant pumps, cooling of power plants, damage to fishermen, and the public keeping their feet off the beaches because of the burning" Don't treat a sting with pee because it can cause more venom to be released. You can splash something acidic, such as vinegar, on the wound by removing the tentacles with a tool.

Scientists put disco strobe lights into jellyfish to see how they work.

Large blooms of Jellyfish were reported in 2015 and 2017, according to The Jerusalem Post. Reports from open water swimmers, divers, boaters, fishers, surfers, paddlers and kayakers are used to track the swarms on the website. Fishing boats and beachgoers can use the interactive map to avoid areas of the ocean and beaches where there are swarms of Jelly Belly.

The most common jellyfish species in waters near Haifa are not native to the tropics. The Isthmus of Suez is an artificial waterway in Egypt that connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and is thought to have been used by the jellyfish to enter the Mediterranean.

According to the NPA statement, pollution could be one of the reasons for the recently-observed event. NPA representatives said that overfishing and population reduction in ocean animals that compete with each other could be to blame for the increase in the number of jellyfish this year.

Dror Angel, a marine ecologist in the University of Haifa's Department of Maritime Civilizations, told The Jerusalem Post that climate change could be a factor in Haifa's Jellyfish bonanza. The intensity of the blooms may have been affected by this. If there's a lot of rain, it washes away some of the vitamins and minerals into the sea. There's more food for the Jellyfish to consume.

It was originally published on Live Science