Forget jellyfish for a 2nd – it appears like a reason for issue if you’re going to be swimming around Malta might extremely well be stinging snakes
Prominent regional marine biologist Alan Deidun has actually required to Facebook to alert individuals to be careful of what appears like a sea snake however is really a nest of stinging cells referred to as a siphonophore.
Regarded as “close relatives of the dreaded Portuguese man o’war”, Deidun explained how, while the sight is normal in Maltese waters over the January to May duration, “for some reason, in recent days, there has been an explosion of reports of this species in local waters”.
And it hasn’t been a localised event either, with bays as far apart from Ċirkewwa and Mistra to Birżebbuġa and Marsaxlokk reporting sightings of the “snakes”
“The species in question could be Forskalia edwardsii and it can reach a total length of 10 metres,” Deidun continued, sharing a variety of pictures sent by his Spot The Jellyfish neighborhood’s “army of citizen scientists” consisting of Maria Schembri, Andrew Zammit, Steven Brockwell, Stephen Bugeja and Gabriel Bugelli.
Have you ever seen among these sea animals out in the wild?
