{"id":552539,"date":"2026-07-16T11:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/552539\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T11:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T11:00:09","slug":"huge-jellyfish-swarms-spotted-off-the-waterford-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/552539\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge jellyfish swarms spotted off the Waterford coast"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Swarms of jellyfish have been spotted drifting along the <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishexaminer.com\/maintopics\/waterford-news_topic-5331512.html\">Waterford<\/a> coast over the past few weeks, with two local residents sharing extraordinary video clips on social media.<\/p>\n<p>One kayaker, Brendan Cosgrave, spotted the spectacle while his group was at sea off Ballinacourty near Helvick Head.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">In his viral video, Mr Cosgrave\u2019s kayak is surrounded by jellyfish on all sides for what he estimated was &#8220;20 or 30 metres in every direction we looked&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He told Damien Tiernan\u2019s WLR  D\u00e9ise Today programme: &#8220;There was more jellyfish than there was water. I\u2019m going to say tens of thousands of them. And all big ones, the size of footballs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">He added, \u201cApparently, they\u2019re harmless \u2013 I wasn\u2019t getting in to find out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Over the past week, the Waterford coastline has seen large blooms of jellyfish, including off Helvick Head and Dungarvan Bay.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Eoin McGarry, another Waterford native, captured video footage off the coast of Dungarvan Bay after spotting what he initially thought was seaweed in the distance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Mr McGarry also told Damien Tiernan\u2019s programme: &#8220;It was a surreal experience. I know from years of diving that the moon jellyfish are harmless. The more dangerous ones in Irish waters would be the lion\u2019s mane.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/5158003_2_articleinlinemobile_iStock-890856740.jpg\" alt=\"Compass jellyfish spotted on Irish beach. File picture\" title=\"Compass jellyfish spotted on Irish beach. File picture\" class=\"card-img\"\/>Compass jellyfish spotted on Irish beach. File picture<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">It is still unclear which species made up the massive bloom, but Metropolitan Mayor Cllr Lola O\u2019Sullivan, who is also a Water Safety Ireland volunteer in Waterford, told RT\u00c9 Radio 1 that compass, blue and barrel jellyfish are the species most likely to be found in Irish waters at this time of year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">Damien Haberlin, a marine biologist at University College Cork, told The Irish Times that the jellyfish are harmless to people and are likely to die soon after spawning.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cThey\u2019re meant to be there,\u201d Mr Haberlin said. \u201cThey\u2019re a normal component of our marine ecosystem and we\u2019d really like people to recognise that.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cPeople often think that because there\u2019s a lot of them, it\u2019s some sort of abnormality or that it\u2019s caused by the heat but that\u2019s not the case,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">&#8220;It\u2019s usually a convergence of wind and tide that drives them close to shore after they\u2019ve spawned. They have a brief life so once they\u2019ve spawned, they\u2019ll die off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\">\u201cAnd there are exceptional years when you see very large congregations. But this isn\u2019t a sign of anything being out of balance. It\u2019s just how jellyfish are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Swarms of jellyfish have been spotted drifting along the Waterford coast over the past few weeks, with two&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":552540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[191786,220797,79,61,60,82,263],"class_list":["post-552539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-waterford-news","tag-waterford-news-and-star","tag-cork-news","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552539","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=552539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/552539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/552540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=552539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=552539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=552539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}