Panic on Croatian beaches, but experts say the jellyfish that appeared are not deadly

There is no reason to panic over the jellyfish that appeared on the western coast, Dr. Alen Soldo from the Department of Marine Studies at the University of Split told Index.hr.

Particularly large swarms of jellyfish were seen around Pula, where they drove bathers out of the sea.

- The appearance of a large number of jellyfish is common during winter or spring, but at that time there are no people in the sea, so no one gets upset except fishermen whose nets get filled with them - Soldo said.

- Obviously, these bora winds have cooled the sea and disrupted currents, so the jellyfish have approached the shore. I haven't seen them, so I don't know what species they are, but if they are indeed large specimens, they are not particularly dangerous to humans, although they can sting with their nematocysts - Soldo explained.

- In the Adriatic, there are some smaller species that can cause considerable pain, but there are no deadly jellyfish. There is one species, called the Portuguese man o' war, which sometimes strays from the Atlantic into the Mediterranean, but we have not yet observed them in our sea - this expert concluded, as reported by Patria.