It’s a jelly good idea to steer clear of some of our visitors
THANKS once again to our volunteers on the coast who have been out in thunderous rain and baking sun this month helping Green Sefton keep the coast clean.
Your help is very much appreciated.
Green Sefton is staging regular litter picking activities for small groups of volunteers (no more than six people) at Ainsdale beach every Monday from 9am to 11am and at the same time on Monday at Crosby beach, meeting at the Mariners Road access to the beach.
A litter pick is also held each Wednesday from 9am to 11am at Southport beach, and in the borough’s parks on Thursdays from 10am to noon.
If you would like to take part in any of these activities, please email me at john.dempsey@ sefton.gov.uk for more details.
You will need to bring your own gloves, stout footwear and weather appropriate clothing, and we’ll supply the litter pickers and bin bags.
It is important to let us know you are coming so we can safely manage the numbers of people taking part.
These activities are taking place while it is hard for our community beach cleaning groups to meet due to current restrictions.
There are some things though that we do not want our brilliant volunteers to touch, let alone pick up.
The transformation from the very image of graceful and intriguing beauty as they drift through the oceans to gelatinous blobs on the sand could not be more marked, but jellyfish are still a fascinating aspect of the teeming life offshore in Liverpool Bay.
In warm spells each year large numbers can drift gently inshore and become stranded, and unwary human visitors can end up with stings from these otherwise innocuous and otherworldly beings.
The advice is simple – look but don’t touch.
Even when dead on the sands some species can deliver a sting. barrel jellyfish, lion’s manes, moon and compass jellyfish all regularly appear on the Sefton coastline.
Strandings can also occur later in the year when storms play havoc with large blooms and many are strewn across Sefton’s beaches like alien bubble-wrap.
Not too many things eat them once they’ve washed up – a gull or carrion crow may try the odd peck – but beneath the waves they are an important food source for exciting species including leatherback turtle and sunfish.
Both of these giants of the sea follow jellyfish up the coast of Wales, and probably swim by unseen by us landlubbers as they glide across Liverpool Bay out beyond our horizon.
Unfortunately the turtles around the globe easily confuse discarded plastic bags for jellyfish and many succumb with stomachs filled with plastics rather than food.
This is a plight that is decimating many of the world’s seabird populations too.
Finally, if you’re tempted by a paddle along the coast, wearing sandals or wellies is always a great idea – in case you unwittingly stand on another of our incredible residents.
Weever fish are small and burrow in the sand at the water’s edge, but if stepped on they have spiny dorsal fins that can deliver a very painful sting if bare feet tread on them.
Brilliant as it is to feel the sand and sea between your tootsies, it is better to be safe than sorry.
If you’d like to learn more about the regularly occurring jellyfish in our waters, you can download a guide from the Marine Conservation Society at www.mcsuk.org/media/explore/ Jellyfishguide.pdf