Last week a large number of sea raft ‘jellyfish’, also known as barquetes de Sant Pere, began to appear on several beaches of Ibiza, such as Cala Salada, Port des Torrent or Platges de Comte.
Yesterday April 19th, the cove of Sant Vicent awoke to a plague, with a blue blanket of hundreds of thousands of sea raft ‘jellyfish’ covering the beach. Laura María Aguiló Rendón, a Mallorcan who is currently on vacation in Ibiza, could not believe her eyes when she arrived at the beach (the day before she had also been there and there was no trace of these animals) and saw the blue invasion. “It was incredible to see how from one day to the next so many jellyfish had arrived on the coast. The image was incredible”, Laura herself tells Diario de Ibiza. The witness who took the images that accompany this article also explains that they are not very big, and that in height, including the sail, the biggest ones measured about 5 centimeters, but “you could see many very small ones, between 2 and 3 centimeters”, she says.
What is the sea raft ‘jellyfish’?
The sea raft ‘jellyfish’ (Velella velella) is a pelagic surface species highly prized by sea turtles. In fact, south of Formentera, the large concentrations of ‘Velella velella’ on the high seas, caused by cyclonic gyres of surface waters, brings many loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta), especially juveniles, to the area every year, as reported by Cristina Amanda Tur in an article published in the Sunday edition of Diario de Ibiza.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.