Thousands of dead jellyfish wash up on beach in the sea of Azov, Russia #Jellyfish #Azov #Russia |

Dead jellyfish are thrown onto the beach after polluting the water

Photo Credit @krasnodar Kray (Newsflash)

A disgusting video shows thousands of dead and rotting jellyfish washed-up on a sandy beach in Russia.

Holidaymakers had to clear hundreds of jellyfish in order to try and clean the water when it turned an unappealing shade of brown from their decaying bodies.

The footage was recorded at the Sea of Azov from the coastal resort town of Yeysk yesterday.

In the video, dead jellyfish smother the beach while holidaymakers bring more of the dead jellies from the water, where many others can be seen floating.

Two men clean the water of dead animals with their bare hands, while others prefer to use whatever they can find to throw the jellyfish onto the shore.

Krasnodar Krai social media group, who uploaded the video on Instagram, said the water turned brown because of the decaying bodies of the jellyfish.

It is generally not safe to handle jellyfish, even when they are dead, because many species have tentacles that deliver a painful sting when they come into contact with skin.

A voice in the background says: “It is like Jellyfish Island.”

Despite reports of thousands of dead jellyfish washing up on the Crimean Peninsula a few months ago, these specimens were very much alive at the time.

According to the deputy director of the Research Institute of Fisheries and Marine Ecology, Konstantin Demyanenko, the increase in the jellyfish population is related to the water becoming saltier.

He said: “In the Sea of Azov, this figure is now 14 ppm (parts per million), which is one-and-a-half times higher than in the 1990s.