Dorset has already had a handful of jellyfish sightings as the sea warms up and coastal visitors are urged to report any seen along the beaches.

“There are not swarms at the moment,” said Julie Hatcher, marine awareness officer for the living seas team of Dorset Wildlife Trust at Kimmeridge.

“Having said that, they have been seen in shallow water from the shore and from kayaks in the bay. What it’s like further out I’m not sure.”

Strong winds have sent blue and compass jellyfish, both of which have a mild sting, up the Channel to Dorset’s Jurassic Coast .

They have been seen at Kimmeridge with reports of blue jellyfish at Studland, some four to five inches across, but not in the numbers encountered in the surf on Cornwall’s beaches.

“A decade ago they used to be very rare here,” said Julie. “In the last few years we get them every year, since the climate has changed.”

The Portuguese Man of War, with its dangerous sting, which has been spotted along the south coast in the past, has not been recorded in UK waters during 2012.

“It’s exciting rather than scary, I would say,” said Julie. “There are some things that prey on them we like to see like sunfish and turtles that we occasionally get here.

The Marine Conservation Society, which runs the national jellyfish survey, says there have been far fewer sightings so far this year, however in the last few weeks the number of reports has risen dramatically.

This time last year some parts of UK seas resembled a jellyfish “soup” when large blooms of thousands were reported.

So far most this year most sightings have been along the west coast, with large numbers of compass jellyfish in the south-west in late July.

To take part in the jellyfish survey go to mcsuk.org and DWT would also like to hear of sightings – go to the group’s website dorsetwildlifetrust.org.uk