The Philippines had announced a lockdown on 12th March 2020. One of the beaches called Corong Corong Beach, Palawan saw a sudden appearance of the ‘tomato’ jellyfish (Crambione cf. mastigophora). The beach is known to be popular with tourists.
Some biologists speculate that the jellyfish may have stayed deeper in sea due to intense human activity inland.
However, “The atmosphere, water velocity, current, tide and even geological features of the bay or any body of water can influence the occurrence of medusae and their blooms” said Sheldon Rey Boco, a PhD candidate in marine biology at Griffith University, Australia who also shared the original video of the bloom.
He added that these jellyfish may be starting to thrive with the absence of human activity and concluded that more research is necessary into this phenomenon.
