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AS IF DEALING with mass strandings of the Portuguese Man of War off the west coast wasn’t enough to deal with, now we have the mauve stinger to contend with.
Liam MacNamara, a native of Fanore, Co Clare, came upon this sight on the beach near his home at the weekend. It’s something he says he’s “never seen the likes of”.
“We just came upon these stranded mauve stinger jellyfish, thousands of them,” he says.
I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never seen anything like it.
It isn’t even the first mass-stranding MacNamara has seen this year – back in June it was the turn of moon jellyfish to beach themselves en masse on Fanore beach, which again was the first time he had ever seen anything like it.
“There’s a lot of theories going around, some say the oceans are heating up, our fish stocks are much lower than they were because of overfishing,” says Liam.
A lot of it could be down to wind direction as well.
A few Man of Wars were also beached at the same time as the mauve stingers at the weekend – and they’re creatures MacNamara had quite literally never seen before.
There’s something funny afoot off the west coast it seems.
The missing fish would ordinarily be natural predators for the stranded jellyfish, especially when “they’re juvenile and just little blobs” according to Liam. So maybe that’s the answer.
While it may look a little overwhelming, a stranding such as this doesn’t stay like that for long: “they die very quickly when they come in, and once they’re in they’re 95% water so they just disintegrate, or birds eat them.”
They’re not there for long.
You can view more of Liam’s photography work at the Burren Shores Facebook page.
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You would swear America was a perfect utopia up until January 20th 2017.
@Eamonn:
Agree, don’t read anymore (this one included) the continued hysterical rants from the anti-Semitic, terrorist loving, Jihadi loving left. Heard Pat Mercenary Lefty Kenny this morning on Newstalk. JHC, what ever happened to impartiality in reporting by journalist in this country. It’s embarrassing. All this anti-Trump bashing is now just one big YAWN.
@Warthog: “the continued hysterical rants from the anti-Semitic, terrorist loving, Jihadi loving left. ”
I mean, the irony should be obvious, but…
@Warthog: Opposing Israel isn’t anti-Semitic. War crimes are war crimes,
@Search Eagle I think it’s lost on him lol
@Ewan Euphrenza:
Who mentioned Israel?
Tell that to the Jewish students in the 600 Universities in the USA who are been abused on a daily basis by members of CAIR, MSA, BDS, SJP, ITC, IIIT and supported by lefty yellow bellied non-muslim academics! The “Left” has to my memory always been “Anti-Jew”. In recent history that become even more obvious in the 60′s. Antisemitism is alive and well all across Western Europe. So good luck with living in your little tunneled vision bubble.
@Warthog: Don’t even waste your breath trying to explain yourself to the leftards because they can’t handle the truth.
Where all other American president’s whiter than white… Did they just work for humanity and did they just do good .. or did they destroy the middle East,. Make millions leave their homes,. Stand back while Isis was funded by their friends.. and so on. They way people are acting you would think America was a utopia and only did good around the world… It didn’t but sure let’s pretend it was and all others before trump were whiter than white.
@LITTLEONE:
Don’t forget that, under America’s first black president, race relations have decended to their worst point in decades.
@Jason Culligan: Keep on telling yourself this, Keely Ann Culligan, it’s a nice alternative fact
@Jason Culligan: very true Jason.
Jason you are correct but they are about to get a whole lot worse which is why people need to fight every new policy aimed at dismantling the civil rights of minorities.
Social media has had a major impact on race relations. People can now see how the police deal with minorities and how they walk away from courts with a slap on the wrist. The problems were always there but now that people are demanding that the culprits are prosecuted, it has lead to more discussion and protests.
@Jason Culligan: True that
The reason race relations may have deteriorated under Obama is because Obama is black. People like Trump and the tea party et al couldn’t handle that fact.
What’s o malley doing to Ireland with this..
The former Governor has also started a petition and a social media campaign with the hashtag #noshamrocks.
Not great message for Ireland… Yet he has cheek to give out about trump.. his showing discrimination towards shamrocks…
@Jason Culligan:
And in socio economic terms black people are far worse off than when his administration started.
@Emmet Not just black Americans. All Americans are worse off due to the recession. Minorities however, tend to suffer more for obvious reasons
@Emmet O’Keeffe: “And in socio economic terms black people are far worse off than when his administration started.” -When Obama was president,who was in control of the purse strings ? You can take your time..
PS. Nice to see ye so concerned about the black folks ..
Actually in socio economic terms they are not worse off:
Black unemployment:
2009 12.7%
2014 8.8%
Improvement
Black poverty:
2009 25.8%
2014 26.2%
No major change
Black average income:
2009 $35954
2014 $35398
No major change
@Soccer T’s: But thats still way below the average industrial wage
During Obama’s tenure, the percentage of black Americans struggling below the poverty line has advanced from 25.8 in 2009 to 26.2 in 2014 — up 1.6 percent.
The number of black food-stamp participants exploded across that time frame from 7,393,000 to 11,699,000 up 58.2 percent.
The percentage of black Americans who own homes foundered from 46.1 percent to 41.9 percent, according to the Census — down 9.1 percent.
The Urban League’s National Equality Index found black Americans going backwards economically, from 57.4 percent equality with whites in 2009 to 55.8 percent in 2015 — down 2.8 percent.
@Soccer T’s:
Actually your statistics prove my point.
Black poverty increased.
Average black income decreased.
Emmet your maths are a little off
@Emmet O’Keeffe: You haven’t answered my question.Do you need more time?
Under a black president who had no control over policies due to republican tea party hardcore who controlled the Senate and congress who stoked the fire for 4 years. When obama had control for the first 4 years of his term, it wasn’t like that. It only decended into chaos once the Senate and congress were under the control of republican extremists.
@Emmet O’Keeffe: While I can’t dispute the figures you give, I can dispute the differences you said because you are wildly inaccurate.
Poverty: 25.8% to 26.2% is an increase of 0.4%, not 1.6% you said.
Homes: 46.1% to 41.9% is a decrease of 4.1%, not 9.1%
Economics: 57.4% to 55.8%, is a decrease of 1.6%, not 2.8%
Did you not have access to a calculator?
And the food stamps figure is way off too.
Here try this https://percentagecalculator.net/
@Jimmyjoe Wallace:
Is Obama black?
What happened to those other 23 chromosomes?
@meatyslaps:
Far more important than dodgy maths is the difference between correlation and causation.
Did Obama cause the increase/decreases or did they simply occur under his stewardship?
What many simplistic commenters fail to realise is that free association of data and tenure is rarely intellectually robust.
@Jason Culligan . That is very true.
Nothin dodgy about Emmet’s maths lads, just your understanding of how percentages work. Take another close look..
Since when did this corporate Democrat become the voice of Irish Americans? The Irish media love to find establishment Democrats to pontificate on US affairs and ignore all the Irish Americans who are Republicans. And I’m not pro-Trump, was 100% Bernie who would have been far better for blue collar Irish Americans than the candidate O’Malley endorsed (Hillary) after he dropped out of the primary. But I’m sure O’Malley prepping for 2020 already and in turn is looking for media attention.
@Karl:
Democrats like to put people into convenient boxes and then pretend to speak on behalf of the entire box. They irritate the black and latino Republicans to no end with this.
@Jason Culligan: unlike the Republican Racists, who just hate on anyone, that’s not a white millionaire straight male
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: Jason is a hoot.
Jason runs rings around you guys.
Maybe that’s why you’ve resorted to constantly abusing him on a daily basis.
Nasty bunch.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus: what about o malley and his discrimination against shamrocks? What did the people of Ireland do to upset the democrats that just before st Patrick’s day.. they start a campaign called #noshamrocks…Not cool…..
@Larissa: So Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio. Ben Carson – they’re all racist? Not that it really matters but the Republican primaries were far more diverse than those of the Democrats. It’s a disgusting slur to label an entire group of people as racist just because you don’t agree with them. It’s close to accusing someone you don’t like of paedophilia. Can you back your assertion up or are you just as flippant with evidence as you are with maligning people’s character?
@Squarepeg01:
Larissa doesn’t need evidence to make allegations against a person’s character. She assumes that she’s above reproach in this regard.
It’s obvious that she lacks the emotional stability required to engage in rational debates and exchanges of ideas. Sad really that the tone has to be dragged down constantly.
@Larissa Caroline Nikolaus:
No that’s just you who just hates anyone that is white, is a millionaire and is a straight male!
@Jason: a common trait on the left, I’m afraid.
Oh great! Larry’s here again to tell us all about the evil of white straight males, the phallocracy, to check our privilege, blah, blah, fu(kin blah… Seems like you’re pretty full of hate and resentment yourself, very quick to generalise all Republicans, almost comically oblivious to the hypocrisy of your diatribe..
@Jason Culligan:
Watch those pronouns, Jason, I think you have succumbed to the alternative reality.
When will they realise that saying that Trump is “Racist and bad” is not going to work anymore in fact it does more good for Trump and one of the reasons he got elected in the first place.
So people should just lay down and take this? Protests need to get bigger and louder
Im guessing the ex Governer isnt familiar with Enda’s way of doing things.
Join the ‘Resistance’ maybe?
O’Malley today, will it be Ryan tomorrow on the airwaves? This is politics, getting painful too, Trump won the election.
Move on.
@RG Law: So, because 45 won the election, he is above criticism, and can’t be protested against?
Adolf won the election, move on. No thanks!
Kennys final Freeby.. Weasel will see that plea fall on deaf ears…
3 leaf shamrock I adore thee.Donald Trump I deplore thee.Enda could u give him a bowl of sawdust instead to represent what’s between his ears.
The lap dogs ego wouldn’t let him miss it,One final pat on his Sleeveen head before we get rid of him.
No better man. He does shaking hands and insincere smile really well, maybe he could get a selfie too.
@Willy Malone: And if Varadkar wins the leadership then we’ll have a PM who has already stupidly declared Trump should not be invited to Ireland. He’ll have to weasel his way back out of that one.
O malley has some cheek … Showing discrimination against shamrocks.. how is this good for Ireland .
The former Governor has also started a petition and a social media campaign with the hashtag #noshamrocks. Not really appropriate … What’s Ireland done to him??????
Could you imagine if trump or his campaign stated this….#noshamrocks.. just before st Patrick’s day…. it be front page news….. Outrage on rte…..
Benny, Enda’s ears, certainly.
The irish solution! Keep the relationship going despite the cost to our lacking integrity! Lick the shoes of the Imperialists because we are.a wee little land! The irish leprachaun Enda! I”ll give ye three wishes now trump! What will it be? A golf course? A US military base? Or a bowl of shamrock and a smile! A great man ye are! Hypocrites one and all!
@John Coogan: fg slogan, keep the recovery going..translation-keep putting band aids on our broken system, and don’t reform anything.
Expecting enda to make a stand fo human decency and truth is asking too much enda only stands by bankers and as for the truth he couldn’t spell the word without telling a lie
@Seamus Brady: Expecting any traditional party or politician to make a stand for human decency and truth is apparently asking too much. Or aren’t they all just nodding dogs when it comes to throwing open ”neutral” Ireland’s ports and airports to illegal warmongers, foreign despots dragging their slaves to damnation? Of course they are. Not a moral bone in their spineless backs.
Nothing like a good old populist rant to keep ones name in the public domain.
Americans of all heritage will little note the White House appearance of Kenny, local TV will cover parades, green beer and the Chicago river’s colour. The media’s view of the US-Irish relationship boils down to the President drinks a pint when visiting and someone takes a bowl of shamrocks to the White House n March.
I disagree.
No Shamrocks for devious Trump please! Enda Kenny should not attend St Patricks Day white house visit. Martin O’Malley is on the ball.
@Gerben (GJF) Uunk:
No, he’s not actually. All he’s doing is pandering to the Irish illegals in the US by pretending to care for them.
Don’t think for a second that this is anything other than posturing to become the future Democrat POTUS candidate for 2020.
The Irish media basically gives us the CNN version of Trump….Never mention even when they have US academics on they are democrat leaning ….We are being dragged into taking sides in a US culture war….It is too simplistic to see democrats as good like God and Trump as evil like Satan…Need to give him a year at least before making judgement….He does not even have his full cabinet yet…
@John003: imagine they gave airtime to a man who who has started a campaign of #noshamrocks just before st Patrick’s day.. why would national broadcaster think it’s ok to do this… It’s not … St Patrick’s day around the world is celebrated every where and having someone pushing #no shamrocks should not have been given the time of day. It’s hardly good for Ireland…
He’s right, you know?
@Stephen McManus: Butter the devil you know. Irrespective of thoughts towards ‘Do The Trump’, don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. All worldly political parties have to play their cards close to their chests. He is in for four years.
@Paul Somers: there a big difference between maintaining a working relationship and acting like a tail wagging dog.
Are you mixing up Merkel with Trump
I am certainly no Trump fan the man repels me but no other leader in the free world is boycotting meetings with Trump even the Mexican president has met with him.
Carcetti’s character from the wire was based on O’Malley
Trump is clinically insane.
Then again so is Kenny.
@Patrick O Shea:
Not a good combination.
Why don’t you run for office since you are so smart and save us all.
What’s wrong with green beer??
Just one point in i disagree with, the white supremacists were quite often Irish or Scottish , pretty sure the kkk was founder by a Scotsman.
Given that the KKK is also anti Catholic I find it hard to believe that there’s a high number of Irish people in it.
Sean. When 1st founded there was a Irish element who wanted to preserve their stautus quo as owners of cotton plantations.The kkk revival in 1920 agreed was anti catholic.
http://www.scotsman.com/heritage/people-places/the-scots-who-founded-the-ku-klux-klan-to-serenade-girls-1-4245873
Trump isn’t a white supremacist and this rhetoric is getting stupid now.
And the Birther movement which Trump spearheaded wasn’t racist and neither is Steve Bannon.
Sore loser
@Ed W, that’s about sums it all up.
During the civil war draft of 1863 and and executive order number 38 by General Ambrose Burnside to outlaw any opposition to the president or the union army,the Irish American press in New York particularly John Mullallys Metropolitan Record was the voice of Irish America and encouraged it’s readers to oppose Order 38 they went on the rampage lynching,beating and hacking to death 100 African American New Yorkers. It ended after 3 days with the burning down of an orphanage containing 233 African American orphans. The Metropolitan Record then became the organ for the Copperhead movement. No I wouldn’t want shamrock coming to my city either from the motherland of Mullalys copperheads but not it for the reason the politician gives in this article.
Enda should pull an Oscar stunt – hand the Orange wannabe dictator a bowl of weeds and blame it on PWC
Didn’t Bertie tip over in his canary yellow trousers to give the bowl of shamroguery to the worst warcriminal of the 21st Century (yet) George W Bush? Yirrah give over asides from slaughtering style and taste who has Trump murdered (yet)?
PEPE!
These lads need to stay out of our business.
Trump is a Germanic name and he never has done that yet ?
If you study the anti Trump comments above you will notice that many of them are racist. They dislike black people. I don’t like that, a person should not be judged by the colour of their skin.
have your say