The gelatinous creature, also known as the sea walnut, \u00adnormally lives in the western Atlantic.<\/p>\n
But it has managed to colonise large tracts of the Adriatic, likely after being accidentally transported there in the ballast water of ships.<\/p>\n
In a new report, scientists say its successful proliferation is a result of \u201congoing climate change\u201d, which has led to warmer water temperatures and optimal levels of salinity.<\/p>\n
The marine animal is known to eat its own offspring.<\/p>\n
Scientists say there has been an explosion in the number of jellyfish in Venice\u2019s lagoon, and it is presenting acute challenges for Venetian fishermen.<\/p>\n
Not only does the warty comb jelly clog up fishing nets because of its squishy, gelatinous nature, but it is also a voracious predator that eats fish eggs, fish larvae and plankton \u2212 the building blocks of the lagoon ecosystem.<\/p>\n
The jellyfish is considered to be one of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world.<\/p>\n
Ongoing climate change could create increasingly favourable environmental conditions for this ctenophore<\/p>\n
It is now present throughout much of Venice\u2019s lagoons, according to scientists from the University of Padua and the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, who published the results of a two-year study in the journal Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science.<\/p>\n
The invasive species is creating \u201cserious issues\u201d for the fishing sector, which is worth billions of euro in the Adriatic, they say. The region is particularly well known for its production of clams and mussels.<\/p>\n
\u201cOngoing climate change could create increasingly favourable environmental conditions for this ctenophore, potentially boosting its presence in large aggregations and, consequently, increasing the risk of impacts on the entire lagoon ecosystem,\u201d the scientists said in their report.<\/p>\n
The best-known invasive species in the Adriatic is the blue crab, which also comes originally from the Atlantic.<\/p>\n
It, too, was likely introduced accidentally to the Adriatic in the ballast water of cargo ships.<\/p>\n
The crabs are known to wreck fishing nets, eating the fish trapped inside and causing millions of euro worth of damage.<\/p>\n
Italy is attempting to eat its way out of its blue crab invasion, and the species is increasingly being sold in shops and appearing on restaurant menus. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The gelatinous creature, also known as the sea walnut, \u00adnormally lives in the western Atlantic. But it has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[246,61,60,102,82],"class_list":["post-271497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-italy","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}