One of the most famous Micronesia snorkeling sites is losing an alarming number of jellyfish.
Best snorkeling site in Palau
For all lovers of seas and oceans, here is another disturbing news. These past few weeks, the famous Jellyfish Lake located in the Rock Islands, Palau, has lost a significant part of its population. The tourists who snorkeled there told us that jellyfish are becoming rarer, even missing in some parts of the lake.
This lake had always had a great population of jellyfish due to the absence of predators. For the record, jellyfish have appeared in the lake through a tunnel connected to the sea which is now obstructed. This specie of jellyfish is endemic to that environment. Today it is estimated that the population fell from 8 million to 600,000 jellyfish.
Plausible explanations
- – Exceptional drought affecting the island of Palau.
- – Rise of temperatures caused by El Niño.
- – Increased salinity of the lake caused by lack of rainwater renewal.
Hope still remains if the good weather returned, all the elements are gathered to see the population grow again. This example shows once again that many species of jellyfish are vulnerable to climate changes.
