Why are there so many jellyfish on the beaches of Vendée?

Veillon beach in Talmont-Saint-HilaireAubraie beach in Sables d’Olonne. These are just a few examples of the many areas where many jellyfish have been seen on the Vendée coastline.

“To bathe or not to bathe?” This is the question I asked myself when I arrived on the beach at the end of the very beautiful day, seeing the carpet of jellyfish”, testifies a surfer, who struggled to find, on the wild coast of Sand, to find an area without jellyfish to swim yesterday Friday May 26th.

All over the coast

The phenomenon is also observable further south of the Atlantic coast, in Gironde, for example, as evidenced by our colleagues from France 3.

This would not be a sudden growth of the jellyfish population, but rather a consecutive phenomenon weather conditions as explained to our colleagues Antoine Nowacyk, engineer in marine biology.

A natural phenomenon

Remember that jellyfish travel with the currents, the wind and their food.

However, the winds are usually from the west in this season. Except that, recently, they came from the northwest, thus pushing the plankton to our shores. Jellyfish followed.

“Even if we see them swimming a little, during strong currents, they are subject to the currents and sometimes run aground. They cannot fight,” explains Antoine Nowacyk.

The latter insists that it is a completely natural phenomenon. Depending on the wind pattern, jellyfish may be blown offshore over the next few days. But if the wind is too strong, they will wash up on the beaches and die there.

no danger

Note that the most frequently found jellyfish at the moment are of the Aurelia aurita species. This common jellyfish does not exceed 25 cm. It is considered harmless.

Other species can however be crossed. Caution is therefore called for.

In the event of a bite, however, certain good actions must be taken.

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