Millions of jellyfish are invading Italy's southwestern coasts both surprising and alarming experts because the phenomenon is so out of season.
"This out-of-season invasion is very disturbing and confirms that the environmental balance has been altered by climate change, no matter what the sceptics say," observed Silvio Greco, scientific director at the Institute for Applied Marine Research (ICRAM).
Aside from discouraging bathers, the jellyfish have also created major problems for shipping and fishing, clogging pumps used to cool boat engines.
"These jellyfish are finding fertile water for their invasion because the current situation at sea is the same as in June and July, with no indication that surface water is cooling and sinking to lower levels, as usually occurs in the autumn," Greco explained.
The jellyfish invasion is currently centered along the western Calabrian coast all the way up to Basilicata's shoreline and risks moving west towards the fashionable Aeolian Islands.
The jellyfish in question is the purplish-colored Pelagia noctiluca, which glows in the dark and packs a painful sting, hence its common nicknames of the nightlight jellyfish and the mauve stinger.
There was a major invasion of the Pelagia noctiluca in the summer of 2006 which stretched as far north as the northern region of Liguria and the city of Trieste at the top of the Adriatic.
At the time, experts said a heat wave and rising sea temperatures caused by climate change were factors behind the phenomenon.
