Research pick: The costa sting in the tale - "Citizen science as a resource to define threats to bathing on beaches: the case of jellyfish in Malaga"

A little-known threat to tourists in the form of stinging jellyfish could affect those who like to take a dip in between lazing in the heat on the sun-drenched beaches of Málaga. These sea creatures are of increasing concern along Spain’s most tourism-dependent coastline, the Costa del Sol with more and more frequent outbreaks of jellyfish swarms since the summer of 2018. While beachgoers are often preoccupied with sunscreen and sangria, it turns out that jellyfish are creating a new kind of trouble in paradise, according to research published in Progress in Industrial Ecology, An International Journal.

Francisco José Cantarero Prados and Ana Luisa de la Fuente Roselló of the Department of Geography at the University of Málaga have studied the jellyfish swarms along Málaga’s coastline, pinpointing the sections where swimmers are most at risk of encountering the creatures. To gather data, the researchers turned to citizen science and two mobile apps: Infomedusa and Medusapp. These apps allowed ordinary beachgoers to report jellyfish sightings in real-time. The crowdsourced data could then be combined with historical scientific data from the regional government. The team suggests that the citizen science data represents a useful, scalable, and cost-effective means of environmental monitoring.

The researchers then used geographic information system (GIS) technology to chart detailed maps of the coast and show that a 50-kilometre stretch from Benalmádena to Torre del Mar is particularly risky based on the historical and citizen science data. The implications of the research are important for beach tourism. Jellyfish blooms can shake up tourism, deterring visitors and so threatening the local economy.

The same approach to citizen science and GIS might also be used in the future to map and monitor other harmful coastal phenomena such as algal blooms, shark sightings, or even the effects of climate change on local marine ecosystems.

Cantarero Prados, F.J. and de la Fuente Roselló, A.L. (2024) ‘Citizen science as a resource to define threats to bathing on beaches: the case of jellyfish in Malaga’, Progress in Industrial Ecology – An International Journal, Vol. 17, Nos. 1/2, pp.26–39.