IN MARCH 2024, some beaches in Sabah experienced a massive invasion of jellyfish swarms. These jellyfish are called “tomato jellyfish” (Crambione sp.) and there were so many of them that the beach looked like a giant bowl of tomato soup. This came on the heels of multiple reports of sting cases from the Portuguese Man O War jellyfish (Physalia physalis) along the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia, causing negative publicity and impacting local coastal tourism.
This sudden but temporary increase in the jellyfish population, termed “population blooms,” is not new in Malaysia. Historical records have indicated at least 65 cases of jellyfish blooms occurred in Malaysian waters from the early 1960s to the present, where at least 10 jellyfish species have been identified as the culprit.
