page_title: Jellyfish bloom
section_title: Tourism
hierarchical_section_title: Jellyfish bloom / Impacts on humans / Tourism
context_page_description: Jellyfish blooms are substantial growths in population of species under the phyla Cnidaria and Ctenophora.
  Blooms may take place naturally as a result of ocean and wind patterns, ecosystem shifts, and jellyfish behaviors though their occurrence is thought to have increased during the last several decades in near-shore regions and shallow seas across the globe. Changes in ocean conditions including eutrophication, hypoxia, rising ocean temperatures, and coastal development, among others are thought to be the main causes of increasing jellyfish blooms. Little is known regarding how future environmental conditions will affect jellyfish blooms, though this is a growing field of research.
  Jellyfish blooms significantly impact ecological community composition and structure by reducing available prey for higher predators. Blooms also significantly alter carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycling, shifting the availability to microbial communities. Recent blooms have commonly overlapped with multiple industries, reducing fisheries catch, clogging fishing nets and power plant pipes, and overwhelming popular beach destinations leading to closures.
context_section_description: In coastal areas where tourism is ubiquitous, jellyfish blooms often present a risk to recreational activities due to beach closures and stinging swimmers. During blooms, the incidence of jellyfish stings becomes much more common. In parts of the Mediterranean Sea the problem has been very pronounced. For example, in the Mediterranean town of Solento, Italy, there were over 1,700 sting incidents requiring medical attention between 2007 and 2011. Stings were more commonly reported when wind conditions were blowing perpendicular to shore, which generally brought jellyfish into closer proximity with tourists.
  Though stings and beach closures may affect tourism, attitudes about the presence of jellyfish may not affect behavior. A study surveying beach goers in Israel found that only between 3–10% said jellyfish blooms would be a factor causing them to cancel a beach trip. Attitudes differed between hypothetical and actual blooms. People were more likely to say they would avoid the beach before an outbreak, yet during outbreaks respondents were about twice as likely to say they would enter the water regardless. This suggests that jellyfish blooms are in some cases more of an inconvenience to recreation than a significant hindrance. Still, models predict that persistent annual jellyfish blooms could contribute to 1.8–6.2 million € tourism losses annually.
  Scientific articles that support abnormal jellyfish blooms are more attractive to mainstream media, causing a dramatization of jellyfish bloom events in the public eye. This disproportionate coverage of bloom events changes public perception about the presence of jellyfish, which could lead to the impacts on tourism.
caption: A diver swimming among jellyfish.
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