It’s cruel to treat a living creature like this, even if it does pose a threat. AIBU?

[kissthefish]

I’m on holiday overseas. In the sea by the hotel’s beach, there are blue jellyfish. It doesn’t bother me; it’s their habitat and I just remain alert and avoid them.
The lifeguards pluck them out of the sea, carry them to the sand where they then cover them in sand. I believe this is cruel and I’d rather they went in a container of water and were later released. It’s an exercise in futility anyway, as you can’t possibly get rid of every last one.
Is it normal to do this? And AIBU to think they should bloody leave them alone?

Poor creatures and you 💯 on this. Too many barbaric subhumans stealing our oxygen these days.

YANBU that is horrible. They are just floating about in their natural habitat. Humans are the ones encroaching on theirs.

Agree. Completely unnecessary and a bit sadistic.

That's cruel, I agree they should be collected, put in sea water and released later.
What if a dog accidentally digs one up? Do they sting?

Yep, or a child just wanting to make a sandcastle.

I know nothing about blue jellyfish. If they are a nuisance and very plentiful, I would put it on a par with using ant bait, rat poison, fly spray.

I would use none of those, but many people see it as essential and not an issue.

I’ve just googled them, and apparently they have population explosions, or blooms.

Given that they have a nasty sting, I’d rank them with wasps- and no one seems to pause about poisoning them. At least putting them up under the sand has no repercussions for other wildlife. No toxins building up the food chain,

As a child , if we saw jellyfish stranded on the beach when the tide had gone out my dad would scoop them up (using the wet sand they were lying on as a barrier) and would toss them back into the sea. These were moon jellyfish in the UK, so not an endangered species, just living creatures in unfortunate circumstances that we could easily help.

I'm not suggesting that people should have to help them, but bring deliberately cruel is very sad, and unlikely to make much difference to the number in the water tomorrow.

It doesn’t make it any better, but jellyfish don’t have pain receptors nor enough of a nervous system or brain to feel pain. But what the lifeguards are doing is futile and needlessly destructive. Presumably they’re trying to stop people from swimming or paddling into them and getting stung?

I’m not sure I entirely see how a covered jellyfish in the sand is better than a jellyfish in the sea really? What if a child ran over it, or dug it up? They’ve just moved it from one environment with people to another environment with people

Well… not that I’m endorsing what they’re doing, but I’d say it does make it less bad if jellyfish don’t have pain receptors or a consciousness. It would obviously be worse if this was an excruciating situation for them.

I could be wrong but jellyfish don’t have brains or awareness of pain or discomfort as far as I recall so it’s probably not cruel as they wouldn’t be distressed like say a dog or a seagull

The jellyfish doesn't really understand what's happening. It's not like taking a dolphin out of the ocean and putting it in a fishtank. But it is stupid, you're just spreading them around like mines people can't avoid.

Jellyfish are getting out of control in some areas due to over fishing so jellyfish are getting out of control. This certainly isn't the right way to tackle that issue tho

I agree with a pp, they're like wasps

It's a bit like being cruel to a carrot isn't it? Jellyfish don't have brains or pain receptors or anything. I don't think that I could get worked up about this.

Thanks everyone. I had been thinking about this all day - I tend to lose reason when it comes to animals - so I am pleased to learn that they won’t feel anything at least. That would break my heart.
I have loved staying here and had been unsure of whether or not to include the jellyfish point in my upcoming TripAdvisor review. I probably won’t bother. I’m sure the lifeguards get all kinds of shit if a guest gets stung, so it’s the lesser evil really. Still sad though.

Thanks everyone. I had been thinking about this all day - I tend to lose reason when it comes to animals - so I am pleased to learn that they won’t feel anything at least. That would break my heart.
I have loved staying here and had been unsure of whether or not to include the jellyfish point in my upcoming TripAdvisor review. I probably won’t bother. I’m sure the lifeguards get all kinds of shit if a guest gets stung, so it’s the lesser evil really. Still sad though.

yes they can’t feel anything but nevertheless it doesn’t seem like an effective way of dealing with them. And I say this as a vegan. They don’t feel. I’m pretty sure some of the people who are up in arms about it still consume animal products of some kind. There has to be proportionality. This is not a hill to die on.

It's really no different from taking seaweed out of the sea, and a whole lot less cruel than fishing or using things like mousetraps, rat poison etc.

I probably would mention it on TripAdvisor, as it's a warning about digging in the sand if nothing else.

yeah ridiculous and cruel, with every tide new ones come in.