IT'S that time of year when visitors flock to the seaside but one coastal town has seen a different kind of guest invading its shores.

Thousands of jellyfish are strewn up on the beach at Redcar on a stretch from the South Gare to the Majuba car park.

They have also washed up on the other side of the town, towards Saltburn.

While some of the creatures are quite small, others are up to three feet wide.

Paul Castle, foreshore manager for Redcar and Cleveland Council, said he had never seen so many jellyfish at Redcar.

Eddie Dowson, auxillary for Redcar coastguard, said: "We get them every year but not in such great numbers."

Last year, the jellyfish invaded beaches further down the North-East coast at Whitby and Scarborough. A spokesman from Humber Coastguard said there had been no reported problems at the Yorkshire resorts so far this season.

Paul Bullimore, displays supervisor at the Scarborough Sea Life Centre, explained that the jellyfish come to the North-East as the water gets warmer and they are in search of plankton, which they live on. They are brought by prevailing winds and sea currents and usually hit our shores at this time of year.

The tides have marooned the jellyfish on the shore and Alan Staniforth, Heritage Coast Ranger, said they were likely to die before the tide came in again to take them away.

But Redcar and Cleveland Council said that the jellyfish either shrivelled up or, because they were part of the natural food chain, they were taken back to the water's edge.