Paddleboarders in Hunstanton find themselves surrounded by ‘couple of football fields’ of jellyfish

Paddleboaders found themselves surrounded by “acres” of jellyfish yesterday evening off Hunstanton’s shore.

Experienced paddleboard instructor Andy Holland described it as a “freaky” event when he and someone he was training came into contact with the creatures.

He described seeing the jellyfish packed together in close proximity in the sea in an area roughly equivalent to two football pitches.

The sea creatures were spotted about a mile and a half offshore, opposite the pier.

He said: “It’s pretty mad, we usually see a lot but it was just mad last night.

“I’ve been in the sea all my life. You get to this time of year where you get lots of jellyfish but I’ve never seen them like that.

“It was a freaky thing, it’s warm, it was a biggish tide, they were all washed together. But it’s unusual that they were in that quantity and to see them like that.

“There were big patches the size of maybe a couple of football fields.”

Andy has advised people not to go far out to shore to see the jellyfish as it could be dangerous.

He said: “I wouldn’t recommend people paddle boarding out that far because that’s a long way off shore for your average person.

“I was training a top UK racer and we were out trying to find rough waters, that’s why we were off shore.

“It’s not something for people to paddle out to. The last thing you want to do is to chase it and get out into trouble.”

Andy said he often sees jellyfish when out paddleboarding in summer, but thinks on this occasion the creatures somehow got washed together.

He said: “I think it's because of the currents, they were all congregating where they were getting washed into two channels.

“They were just swirling and sat over the sandbars. There were just masses of them.”

Luckily, nobody was stung during the event.

Andy is part of the paddleboarding company “Sups Life” which is based in Hunstanton.