Detection of an unusual presence of the cubozoan Carybdea marsupialis at shallow beaches located near Denia, Spain (south-western Mediterranean)

Abstract

cesar bordehore 1,5 , vero ' nica l. fuentes 2 , dacha atienza 2 , carmen barbera ' 3 , damian fernandez-jover 4 , mireia roig 5 , melissa j. acevedo-dudley 5,2 , antonio j. canepa 5,2 and josep maria gili 2

First records ofCarybdea marsupialisproliferation (Cnidaria: Cubozoa) along the eastern Tunisian coast (Central Mediterranean)

“…Values for the morphometric parameters of Carybdea marsupialis as recorded at Hammamet beach approached those measured in Spain (Bordehore et al 2011), although, generally, smaller specimens (1-2 mm bell height) were recorded at the Tunisian site. This difference could be due to differences in the net mesh size used during sampling in both studies (5 mm in Spain area sampling versus 0.2 mm in the present study) as well as differences in the sampling period.…”

“…Public health problems triggered by C. marsupialis stings represent a threat for tourism activities and other local coastal socio-economic activities, in view of the high abundance of the same species during blooming events. For instance, during the summer of 2008, 3330 jellyfish stings were recorded by the Red Cross in beaches located near Denia in Spain, where a C. marsupialis bloom was underway (Bordehore et al 2011). Within the Hammamet sampling area and at adjacent beaches, swimmers complained of painful stings.…”

“…Horizontal hauls of a WP2 net (200 µm mesh size) equipped with a flowmeter were performed to collect C. marsupialis and zooplankton by wading in shallow water in a parallel direction to the coast. The net was kept at approximately 5-10 cm above the seabed and a standardized distance of 100 m was covered in each transect (Bordehore et al 2011). Two parallel transects were carried out, at depths of approximately 1.3 and 2 m, with a SCUBA diver guiding the net in the water to ensure it was being towed at a constant height above the seabed.…”

“…Along the Spanish Mediterranean coastline, C. marsupialis specimens are familiar to SCUBA divers but were rarely spotted until the occurrence of a bloom during the summer of 2008, which led to a high number of stings (Bordehore et al 2011). Along the North African Mediterranean coasts, up to now only two cubomedusan specimens were collected in Tunisian waters (Raouad) and one cubomedusan specimen was collected in Algiers in 1973 and 1974, respectively.…”

Rediscovery and description of the cubomedusa <i>Alatina grandis</i> (Agassiz & Mayer, 1902) (Cnidaria: Cubozoa: Alatinidae) from Pakistani waters

“…This group is well known because of the high toxicity of most species (Williamson et al 1996, Yanagihara et al 2002, Carrette et al 2002, Carette & Seymour 2004, 2006, Bordehore et al 2011) that has caused several fatalities (Williamson et al 1996, http://thaiboxjellyfish.blogspot. de).…”