After an unusually jellyfish-free summer, a swarm of the wandering filamentous kind has been seen off the coast of Haifa.
“This swarm, unlike the ones that usually arrive in the summer, is different because most of it is below sea level at depths of a few meters. It appeared a few days ago and is found in small groups,” said Dr. Gur Mizrahi and Dr. Eli Shemesh from the Charny School of Marine Sciences at the University of Haifa.
Jellyfish in the winter may not be unusual
According to the researchers, the arrival of swarms of jellyfish in the winter is not unusual, and their non-arrival in the current summer season did not prevent them from arriving close to Israel’s shores in recent days.
“The swarm looks young, the creatures are not large, and their density differs from those in the summer.
Even though we do not always notice them in winter, when there are almost no bathers in the sea, the jellyfish have not left us yet.
"We, from the lab of Dr. Yoav Lehan and Prof. Dani Tchernov, are trying to cope with the annual phenomenon of jellyfish,” Mizrahi said, concluding that they "are simple creatures—but they surprise us every time!"