PUERTO PRINCESA CITY -- Authorities and residents in the town of El Nido, Palawan, are baffled by what seemed to be a stranding phenomenon of several thousands of jellyfish larvae at Nacpan Beach, Sitio Calitang in Barangay Bucana.
Photos of the said phenomenon, which was posted on June 16 by El Nido resident Justin Silvestre Albo on his Facebook account, have caught the attention of netizens who initially thought they were juvenile cone shells.
Arvin Acosta, tourism operations officer of El Nido, also thought they were shells.
“Strange, it looks like some sort of shells, or jellyfish,” he said.
The Municipal Government of El Nido, headed by Mayor Nieves Rosento, is now considering the temporary closure of Nacpan Beach, which has been described as the “world’s most beautiful beach” by Canadian traveler and vlogger Christian LeBlanc.
In interviews with local newspaper Palawan News, Rosento said the stranding of jellyfish, locally known as “labong-labong,” was not the first time in Nacpan.
“We have observed this to be a natural phenomenon but we noticed that this time, there are too many of them,” Rosento said.
Jellyfish blooms, she explained, occur naturally in the waters and beaches of El Nido between the months of June and August. She said the stranding was probably caused by climate change.
According to Jellywatch.org, "no one has tried to examine jellyfish blooms from all over the world before."
It said that when conditions are good "(for example, the temperature is just right and there is plenty of food), it is normal for jellyfish to grow fast and reach large numbers. This is part of the natural seasonal cycle of many species of jellyfish."
“Scientists think that the world might be seeing more jellyfish blooms than before because ocean conditions are changing, and sometimes those changes are because of humans. A combination of over-fishing, climate change, introduction of species and more nutrients could lead to a surplus of jellies,” it added.
The website also stated that jellyfish are plankton and are not strong swimmers, "so they are at the mercy of the ocean currents. Blooms often form where two currents meet and if there is an onshore breeze thousands of jellyfish can be beached." (PNA)