Basques and Landes find themselves the beak in the water. Despite the holiday season that is in full swing at the time of the famous summer driven, the lifeguards are starting to get into the habit of hoisting the red flag. This Wednesday, July 30, the ban on swimming concerns the Basque beaches of Bidart and Anglet and Seignosse and Vielle-Saint-Girons in the Landes.
In question, the mass presence of an invertebrate: physalie. Nicknamed “Portuguese galley” or “Sea bladder”, it is very often confused with the jellyfish. Wrongly. Physalia is much more dangerous. Liberty take stock.
A bright blue color, purple reflections, a viscous and translucent appearance which gives the impression of facing a plastic bag abandoned in the sea. In truth, a float of 15 to 20 cm supports the animal on the surface of the water, allowing it to move thanks to the sea and wind currents.
Physalia carries behind it a myriad of filaments and tentacles, sweeping an area 50 meters long in the most extreme cases. What disturb whole sections of the Basque Country and Landes.
Already last week, some were spotted offshore, then in the bath area. Five beaches scattered between Bidart and Anglet were forced to close. Thursday, July 17 in Biarritz, access to the Port Vieux beach has been closed due to the presence of the Ostréopsis algae, another problematic marine specimen, causing influenza symptoms.
Guide to Parisian swimmer
Located under the float of the physalie, hundreds of tiny filaments spread in the water like a train net. The long members of the animal allow him to chase his prey, and thus to immobilize an entire bench of small fish. His venom is also a defense in the face of predators that are turtles and other stakes.
Very unhappy is the swimmer who crosses the path of a physalie. Each tentacle of the animal is endowed with a multitude of growths with the appearance of puffed pearls, which, in contact cause a very painful and stinging bite, to make the nettle sympathetic.
Its poisonous filaments often stand out in the waters and deviate according to waves and currents. What surprise the swimmer who finds himself seized by the shock, taken in a tentacle or a filament like a sea bream in a trawl.
On the skin, the contact generates painful lesions, similar to a burn or hives. Other more serious symptoms can manifest themselves as discomfort, a feeling of loss of knowledge or an acceleration of heart rate. On July 10, the Regional Health Agency of Pays de la Loire recalled that in the event of the presence of these symptoms, the bather had to call the SAMU without delay.
Even dead, physalie is a wound: tentacles and tiny animal’s filaments remain poisonous for several weeks.
Rescue recommends not to rub the skin directly with the hand. The tentacles must be removed by rinsing the affected area with sea water, applying dry sand. So, with a rigid card or a bank card, it is then necessary to take off the filament. “Do not hesitate to ask help from lifeguards to take the appropriate measures“Said the Landes prefect in a press release.
In a message posted on Facebook at the end of last week, the Basque Country community announced that its agents remained attentive to the evolution of the situation and that it maintained its surveillance system.
Usually, physalie dips in tropical and subtropical waters of the Indian and Atlantic oceans. Freasts of hot currents, they live there en masse and can regroup to form impressive benches of several million individuals.
In recent years, it has been observed on the coasts of Aquitaine and Charente-Maritime. It remains exceptional on the Breton coasts but was nevertheless identified in Finistère in January 2023.