First records of Carybdea marsupialis proliferation (Cnidaria : Cubozoa) along the eastern Tunisian coast (Central Mediterranean)

Abstract

The cubozoan jellyfish Carybdea marsupialis Linnaeus, 1758 is recorded for the first time from the eastern Tunisian coast (Hammamet beach). A few specimens (three adult individuals) were first recorded in July 2005. In spite of several jellyfish monitoring campaigns carried out along the Tunisian coasts in recent years, new records of C. marsupialis from the same location were only made years later, in July and August 2014, consisting of aggregations of adult jellyfish (mean density of 1.1 ± 1.0 ind. m−3

), which may pose a severe threat to bathers due to their painful stings. The mean morphometric parameter values from 55 C. marsupialis specimens sampled during the same period are reported here, and the possible causes for box jellyfish proliferation in the Hammamet coastal zone are also discussed.