Fried Egg jellyfish in full swing

The sightings mainly came from the north coast of Gozo, Wied iz-Zurrieq and Marsascala.

Testimony to the precise timing of the occurrence of the fried egg jellyfish swarms, the species is also known in Maltese as ‘tal-lampuki”, in clear reference to the dolphin fish, which is caught at this time of year, as well by the descriptive moniker of the traditional snack “qassata”

Despite its size, the fried egg jellyfish is innocuous and its occurrence is short-lived, normally extending till the start of October at most.

Interestingly enough, juveniles of mackerel are frequently observed sheltering amongst the purple-tipped tentacles of the jellyfish.

The size of fried egg jellyfish aggregations so far are nowhere near the staggering dimensions of those observed in September of last year. Sightings of the fried egg jellyfish received so far make up for 5% of the over 300 jellyfish sightings reports received so far. A total of 9 gelatinous plankton species have been recorded so far as part of the Spot the Jellyfish initiative.

The Spot the Jellyfish initiative is coordinated by Prof. Aldo Drago with the technical and scientific implementation of Dr. Alan Deidun and staff of IOI-MOC, andenjoys the support of the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and of Nature Trust, Friends of the Earth, EkoSkola and the BlueFlag Malta programme.

The initiative follows a citizen science approach and relies on the collaboration of the general public, mariners, divers, and especially the younger generations through their teachers and parents, by recruiting their assistance in recording the presence and location of different jellyfish through the use of a dedicated colourful reporting leaflet.

The leaflet is being widely distributed, and can be directly downloaded from www.ioikids.net/jellyfish, which is replete with snippets and anecdotes about different jellyfish species. With the support of MTA, large posters have furthermore been projected on boards along major bays on both islands.

So far, over two hundred records of different jellyfish species have been submitted by the public, and can be viewed online on a summary map which depicts jellyfish occurrence and distribution.