Population explosion of a Ctenophore in upper Adriatic sea
The transparent and gelatinous animals, about maximum 10 cm, that some fishermen have observed latt days in the waters of the Venetian lagoon are not jellyfish but Ctenophores. These species don’t provoke any danger for people in the water or on the shore since they do not have stinging cells. It is still not sure which species belong the Ctenophores observed in Laguna, but probably they belong to a species native to coastal and marine waters of the western Atlantic estuary, which in the last three decades has spread elsewhere through the ballast water of oil tankers and other large ships.