Excessive Proliferation of Sea Walnuts for Marine Heating

In this website we show you, through underwater videos and photographs, the beautiful things that we find under the surface of the sea, but we also document the critical issues that the marine environment suffers from chemical-biological pollution caused by human activities and those related to global warming that affects not only the earth’s surface but also the sea. This video was made at the end of August 2019 in Castiglioncello in the province of Livorno in Tuscany and shows us an excessive proliferation of Mnemiopsis leidyi due to marine heating.   effetto dei cambiamenti climatici

Marine warming is bringing the Mediterranean Sea towards its tropicalization: in fact we are watching migrations of marine species towards the northern Mediterranean and the adaptation in this sea of ​​species typical of the Red Sea that enter it through the Suez Canal.

Mnemiopsis leidyi  is a species of tentaculate ctenophore belongs to Bolinopsidae family, it is mistaken by many for a jellyfish because of its conformation and its transparency, but in reality it is a carnivorous animal that feeds on zooplankton, including crustaceans and other ctenophores, as well as larvae and fish eggs. effetto dei cambiamenti climatici

Its excessive proliferation highlights a sea in that stretch of coast is definitely “sick” in fact the Mnemiopsis leidyi develops in degraded environments, in this case by the abnormal marine heating, but develop in eutrophic environments due to the excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture which then pour into the sea or in oxygen-poor waters due to human activities or even in brackish waters such as those of river estuaries. This shows the great adaptability of this predatory marine species which, in addition to causing damage to the marine environment with its excessive proliferation, highlights a condition that must be faced by all those who have public responsibilities.

We divers can only document and highlight these increasingly frequent phenomena.