Attack of Jellyfish Swarm:Ocean's Alarm for Help

by tiha zaman | August 4, 2008 at 01:29 am | 2712 views | 31 comments | 23 recommendations

"Beware of the attack of the jellyfish swarm".

Sounds like a cheesy tagline of a grade-B movie isn't it? Well rest assured that this isnt a movie review and before you squirm away from reading the rest, try squirming on this:

August 2008 - The box jellyfish and another equally poisonous species, Irukandji, are rapidly on the move worldwide. Scientists are warning that their populations are exploding and will pose a monumental problem unless they are stopped.

And cases of jellyfish stings have been reported to have incresed by 150% compared to last year cases alone.

The news of an explosion of jellyfish population isn't new, many scientist and media have reported as early as 2005 that global warming and overfishing had led to an alarming increase in numbers of jellyfish in the ocean.

Off the coast of France, aggregations of jellyfish have sunk 500-pound fishing nets. In Japan, jellyfish have clogged the water intakes of nuclear power plants.

In the Gulf of Mexico, jellyfish are competing with humans for the larvae of commercially important species such as shrimp. One gulf shrimp boat captain said that in some places, the jellies are so thick "you can almost walk across the water on them."

However the raising of the red alarm caused by this population boom is because the danger and the threat that the jellyfish presents.

Since a few weeks ago beaches in Barcelona had put up warning flags to prohibit swimming along its coastline because of the risky hazard of swarming jellyfish.

In a period of hours during a day a couple of weeks ago, 300 people on Barcelona's bustling beaches were treated for stings, and 11 were taken to hospitals.

Within the past year, there have been beach closings because of jellyfish swarms on the Côte d'Azur in France, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and at Waikiki and Virginia Beach in the United States.

It was reported that scientist's study shows, that from Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and widespread. And they are showing up in places where they have rarely been before.

The blooming of jellyfish have raised for eco-concern, as a kind of sign of ailing seas.

Sort of a press stop by the ocean - telling us on the critical health of the complex marine ecology . About time we hear the sardines shouting: "Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Your precious marine ecosystem is hello, ...dying!"

The explosion of jellyfish populations, scientists say, reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators like tuna, sharks and swordfish; rising sea temperatures caused in part by global warming; and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows.

Which is bad news for the coastal tourism as onslaught of the ghastly vision of floating jellyfish would threaten the pristine shores of some of the most important tourist spots such as the coastlines along Mediterranean seas.

A leading jellyfish expert, Josep-Maria Gili told the Herald tribune that the problem on the beach is a social problem but the big problem is not on the beach. "It's what's happening in the sea".

Before you drive off to the nearest beach and start stomping on every jellyfish in sight, you may want to remember that jellyfish in general are rarely aggressors as they float helplessly with the current.

The poisonous venom of a jellyfish is only injected when they bump into something warm, like a fish or an unfortunate swimmer.

Jellyfish, relatives of the sea anemone and coral that for the most part are relatively harmless, in fact are the cockroaches of the open waters. They are the ultimate maritime survivors who thrive in damaged environments, and that is what they are doing.

The increasing temperature of the sea's climate as well as the depletion of fish caused by overfishing and having few natural predators have set off the jellyfish trigger to take advantage and do quite well for themselves.

Thriving in warm waters, it was reported that the other strange cause for the worldwide "blooming" is because, jellyfish are now moving by hitchiking from ocean to ocean abroad passing ships. Well well, how's that for modern evolution.

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SOLARLIFE

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 02:29 on August 4th, 2008

tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff. We have to think about it and act. Climate change disaster starts here.

tiha zaman

at 02:38 on August 4th, 2008

Hi solarlife. You're right, we have to stop being ostriches hiding our head in the sand to ignore the effect of global warming...or worst, denying that it's happening. Thanks for the flag!

Paschen

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 02:38 on August 4th, 2008

tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Big problem for the last couple of years and many oceans!

tiha zaman

at 02:39 on August 4th, 2008

Thanks Paschen, yup..has been going for years. Getting worst and worst.

BAH (not verified)

at 03:00 on August 4th, 2008

Ignorant people who have very short memories, or choose to ignore the past, make everything into "global warming". Only the very stupid of the stupid think that we have a very large influence on the climate! The Govinator and his buddy Charlie the Govitator are the dumbest! Did you know that oranges once grew at Jacksonville? Do you remember when we were told that orange groves had to be planted below Orlando because of the cold? Dumb, dumb, dumb!

tiha zaman

at 03:51 on August 4th, 2008

Thank you BAH for the "expressive" commentary. Well, Im not going to argue with you on your skeptical view of whether human factor is one of the cause of global warming (eventhough evidence are littered everywhere like candy wrappers) but whatever it is, the temperature of the ocean is rising and has been rising rapidly in the last 10 years.

A huge chunk of ice of almost 8 square miles broke off the Canadian Arctic just last week and more could follow later this year. The caused? The sea has been to warm that it cracked and melted the sheets away. The great barrier reef is also dying away because of this rising temperature.So, bringing us back to the story, warm water makes all these groovy jellyfish excited which makes them breed faster than you can say "i'll be da.."

So why is the water temperature rising? And if not us, then who's turning on the heat?

Johnny Summerton

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:31 on August 4th, 2008

Ouch and yuck. Time to stick to the mountains methinks.

tiha zaman

at 04:49 on August 4th, 2008

haha..you're right. Thanks for the gs Johnny. :)

Emilio Lizardo

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:38 on August 4th, 2008

Ever since a giant swarm of jellyfish invaded the American congress I have been expecting them to see them show up again someplace ... thanks for letting us know just where they've been sighted again !

tiha zaman

at 04:51 on August 4th, 2008

I think they got stuck somewhere between the sea and starbucks! :) Thanks for the time and the gs Emilio.

Vinny

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 04:47 on August 4th, 2008

Forget about alien invasions it's the jellyfish that will take over the Earth!.

tiha zaman

at 04:54 on August 4th, 2008

Well, they already got the looks pat down right Vinny. You just have to add some water-suit, they'll start walking on land. Thanks for the flag!

fretlesspeter

at 08:27 on August 4th, 2008

the bay in Watch Hill, Rhode Island was loaded with several varieties of jellyfish.

fretlesspeter has contributed a photo to this story.

CycoSteve

at 08:49 on August 4th, 2008

This jellyfish washed up onshore at Saltaire, Fire Island Wednesday July30th at 6pm. The shore line was covered in jellyfish from 1" all th way up to 24"....... this one was about 10"....... My wife almost stepped in it.

http://steponedesigns.blogspot.com/

CycoSteve has contributed a photo to this story.

Criticom

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:51 on August 4th, 2008

tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Luiz Castro

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 09:27 on August 4th, 2008

tiha zaman, I like this story. It's good stuff.

K-Dubbz

at 09:47 on August 4th, 2008

This picture was taken at the Seattle Aquarium in July 2007. Upon my visit inside, I noticed outside at the pier that there were little schools of jellyfish floating around in the water.

K-Dubbz has contributed a photo to this story.

DimoKris

at 10:23 on August 4th, 2008

DimoKris has contributed a photo to this story.

pkcathyvue

at 10:25 on August 4th, 2008

I was amazed to see that there are many different kinds of Jellyfish in shape, side, and color. Jellyfish is one of the most beautiful sea animal I've seen.

pkcathyvue has contributed a photo to this story.

grantbw

at 10:55 on August 4th, 2008

Two weeks ago, when I was in San Francisco, the beaches were covered with jellyfish...sad and beautiful.

grantbw has contributed a photo to this story.

Taigra

at 13:13 on August 4th, 2008

These jellyfish can be visited at the Camden Aquarium in New Jersey.

Taigra has contributed a photo to this story.

jbrophy_99

at 14:34 on August 4th, 2008

Dangerously beautiful the growth of these sea jellies is a sign that we all need to be aware of what impacts overfishing is doing to our oceans. Sustainable seafood education and management are key to this process.

jbrophy_99 has contributed a photo to this story.

amydans

at 15:29 on August 4th, 2008

Photo taken at Pittsburgh Zoo's PPG Aquarium, Pittsburgh PA.

amydans has contributed a photo to this story.

mdgraf

at 16:01 on August 4th, 2008

Moon jellyfish, glowing under UV radiation.

(KODAK B&W ISO3200).

mdgraf has contributed a photo to this story.

SpikeSoleil

at 20:40 on August 4th, 2008

This vicious swarm of man-eating jellyfish (actually, I have no idea what they eat) was spotted in an isolation tank at the renowned Oregon Coast Aquarium (Newport, Oregon).

SpikeSoleil has contributed a photo to this story.

praveen koduru

at 22:48 on August 4th, 2008

Taken in Georgia Aquarium

praveen koduru has contributed a photo to this story.

Reavel

at 03:52 on August 5th, 2008

Seaworld Orlando

Reavel has contributed a photo to this story.

The Otisi

at 07:29 on August 5th, 2008

This is an artwork display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. These are handblown glass sculptures, inspired by jellyfish and the jellyfish exhibit currently at the aquarium.

The Otisi has contributed a photo to this story.