Portuguese Man-O-War (Physalia physalis)

Authorities have said that a woman had a deadly reaction and died after being stung by a jellyfish on an Italian beach.

Maria Farcus, 69, is thought to be the first such case of a person dying of a jellyfish-sting in Europe.

Furcas came up onto the beach and collapsed having suffered what appeared to be anaphylactic shock after being stung by the Portuguese Man-of-war jellyfish. Paramedics rushed onto the scene, but were unable to save her, reported the Daily Mail.

“The lady came out of the water dragging her leg and screaming she had been stung by a jellyfish. There was a very vivid red mark on her right leg. Then she collapsed to the ground and a lifeguard and other people on the beach rushed to help her. … She died on the sand in front of dozens of people” A witness on the scene reported.

Experts have said that they believe that Furcas’s case is the first fatal case in the Mediterranean, despite the fact that thousands are stung each year on the beaches by jellyfish.

Furcas’s death happened just days after more than 700 jellyfish stings were reported along the Costa Blanca in Spain.

“This type of jellyfish has always been present in the Mediterranean but now they are increasing in numbers due to global warming and they can grow tentacles up to 60 feet long,” explained a marine biology lecturer at the University of Lecce, Ferdinando Boero.

It has been reported that in the warm, sunny, and usually tranquil beaches of Spain that at least 700 tourists have been stung by small, transparent jellyfish this past week, leading the local officials to rapidly post up warning signs.

The wiggly little invaders have caused “a swimmer’s nightmare,” reports The Associated Press.

The majority of the attacks seem to be occurring the most often near the city of Elche in Eastern Spain, in an area known as Costa Blanca, a rather popular tourist destination for its remarkable white sand beaches.

This past Tuesday alone, 380 people felt the sting from these tiny creatures, comments Juan Carlos Castellanos of the Elche city department for tourism and tourism development.

“In the five or six years I have been in this job, I have never seen anything like this,” Castellanos calmly explains to the AP.

Besides putting up signs warning people of the dangers, officials from Elche are keeping a close lokout for the jellyfish from boats so they can warn the crowds on the beaches when a swarm is approaching.

Meanwhile, just off of the northern coast, in Cantabria and the Basque region, more menacing, and likely more painful, jellyfish-like Portuguese man-of-wars have been inciting their own wave of fear. More than 300 people have had the misfortune of being stun by on those bad boys during the past three weeks, AP comments.

No one knows for sure why the jellyfish are coming up in such immense numbers, but researchers are blaming it on global warming and overfishing practices in the region.

I’m sure you have all heard about the amazing abilities of Paul the Octopus. He had the uncanny ability to accurately predict the outcome of the outcomes of the games of the world cup.. Well, now he can hang up his tentacles and sit back in his tank in Oberhausen, however, a village in Spain is vying to give him a new home.

This begs the question… How did he do it? It all started when someone, possibly as a joke, decided to place a single mussel in two different tanks with the different flags representing the teams, and supposedly he would select the mussel from the winning teams’ tank. This process worked rather well in 2008, where Paul only made one blunder, Germany didn’t win. However, this time around for the World Cup he had a 100% success rate!

No one can quite figure out why Paul has this uncanny ability, but there are many theories as to why he picked what he picked. Some say it could be based on a favorite color, and others say it might be based on smell. However he did it, he managed to be spot on with all his “predictions” for the world cup, warming the hearts, and sometimes the wallets, of fans around the world!

You would think Spain would be more appreciative of this amazing creature, considering he predicted their team would win.. However a small village has offered 30,000 Euro, to scoop up Paul, and not for his uncanny ability to predict the outcomes of games. They want to feature him in their Octopus food dish festival! How’s that for gratitude? Luckily for Paul, the citizens of Oberhausen will have none of that, and he’ll remain safely in his tank for the remainder of his retirement.

The Spanish police have seized 11 tonnes of shark fins in destined to be shipped to Hong Kong.

According to a statement from the police, the shark fins did not appear to come from a protected species but were found in a warehouse that lacked authorization to export shark fins.

The confiscation took place in Huelva in south-western Spain, to where the fins had been transported from a port in Galicia in the north-western part of the country.

The shark fins have an estimated value of 136,800 Euros (186,335 USD). European Union countries are the main exporters of shark fins to China.

In many markets, shark meat does not yield a high price and fishermen therefore normally remove the fin from caught sharks and let the shark back to the sea. Without its fin the shark can no longer swim and will sink to the bottom where it either dies from suffocation (sharks need to swim to breathe) or gets eaten alive by other aquatic animals.

In parts of Asia, shark fins are used in folk remedies and to make traditional shark fin soup. As the standard of living rises in China, more and more people can afford to purchase shark fins and one pound of dried shark fin can now retail for over 300 USD.

I thought I would report on a few good news in the world of marine conservation. First of we are going to look at tuna fishing and the endangered Mediterranean Blue fin Tuna. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) an organization consisting of NGOs and governments surprisingly voted to cut tuna quotas in half (almost) in the Mediterranean as well as instituting a complete fishing ban during the spawning season in May and June when they meet at the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona. The surprising result came after Spain (an important fishing nation) and Japan (the key blue fin market) supported the restricted fishing to prevent the tuna population from collapsing. The IUCN Decision is not legally binding but puts a considerable amount of pressure on the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) which will decide the future of tuna fishing for the coming years at a meeting in December. The effects of diminished quotas remain to be seen as a rapport from the WWF earlier this month showed that half all tuna caught in Italy was caught illegally and that illegal fishing was rampant in Italy.

I am going to leave tuna and talk about something completely different, Beluga whales. The US government this week listed the Beluga whales of Alaska’s Cook Inlet as an endangered species / population. The decision means much stricter rules about what can and can’t be done in the area and local authorities need to get the permission of the National Marine Fisheries Service before they can approve a number of activities in the area. Governor and GOP vice president candidate Sara Palin is worried that the decision will prevent economic growth in the area. She fears that the decision among other things will prevent the expansion of the harbor. The population declined nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 1998 and has not yet recovered. This is believed to be due to developments in the area, predation from killer whales and frequent whale strandings. Environmentalists hope that the new found protection will help increase the population again.

Beluga whale