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Swarm of Giant Jellyfish Capsize 10-Ton Trawler
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the Japanese trawler Diasan Shinsho-maru has capsized off the coast of China, as its three-man crew dragged their net through a swarm of giant jellyfish (which can grow up to six feet in diameter and travel in packs) and tried to haul up a net that was too heavy. The crew was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler. Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures. Experts believe that one contributing factor to the jellyfish becoming more frequent visitors to Japanese waters may be a decline in the number of predators, which include sea turtles and certain species of fish. 'Jellies have likely swum and swarmed in our seas for over 600 million years,' says scientist Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. 'When conditions are right, jelly swarms can form quickly. They appear to do this for sexual reproduction.'"
The worst part of this "invasion" is that the species isn't really tasty at all. Not to mention that every part of this particular jellyfish contains toxins. Every touching the top of the jellyfish will result in temporary numbness.
If they are proliferating because of a lack of predators, we should probably go ahead and kill as many of these as we can to maintain a good ecosystem balance.
No. Let's be clear about this. These jellyfish has bred near a nuclear reactor, and in addition to being intelligent, are quite evil. They did it. And they did it on purpose.
Capsizing Jellyfish: The Hentai
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The boat turned turtle off the coast of Chiba, which is a Japanese port, rather than the coast of China. TFA did mention that the jellyfish's breeding location is off the Chinese coast though.
Colorless green Cthulhu waits dreaming furiously.
"Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings."
Hey there! FlashMob4Jellyfish is using Twitter
WhN? 2day. Where? Sea of Japan. What? Jam as many of us into
a fishing net and capsize the boat.
4:48 PM Oct 9th from ocean
Mod parent trawl.
Paul Grosfield - the quicker picker upper.
'When conditions are right, jelly swarms can form quickly. They appear to do this for sexual reproduction.'"
Perhaps genetic experimentation to produce K.Y. Jellyfish would aid this.
*Repent!Quit Your Job!Slack Off!The World Ends Tomorrow and You May Die!
Perhaps they should make winches that aren't strong enough to capsize a boat. Just a thought.
WOW, I'm sure decades of fishermen haven't considered that. Thank god we have Slashdot.
"What capsizes a boat" is probably very complicated- how loaded is it with fish? How high are the seas? How much water and fuel does it have on board? How much angular momentum does the boat have? How much water resistance does the hull give?
It's probably possible or even normal to haul up a load that, if you kept it hanging out on the crane, would slowly cause the ship to heel over too far, but if brought aboard relatively quickly, wouldn't...
Please help metamoderate.
It's the feed. Ever eaten rabbit? A wild rabbit has a taste that is very distinctive. Farm raised rabbit has a rather soapy taste, so I won't eat it. The only difference is, wild rabbit eat what wild rabbits are SUPPOSED to eat - green vegetation. Farm raised rabbits eat prepared feed, which includes anti-biotics, possibly hormonal growth accelerators like they use for cattle - whatever the eggheads believe will grow the most meat for the least money. Farm fisheries are the same. It's near impossible to duplicate their natural diet, and if you could duplicate it, they would be far more expensive than wild fish.
Diet has everything to do with the flavor of the meat.
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> As opposed to what? Cloning?
Well, yes, actually. Jellyfish reproduce both sexually and asexually.
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I am totally unsurprised by this development after reading about the 5 species that seem to be trying to take over the earth article at Cracked.com.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
"unless somebody doesn't actually know that troll and trawl do mean exactly the same thing in this case?"
Incorrect. Trawling is done using a net, typically in the open ocean. It scoops up a lot of different crap, as the fishermen found out.
Trolling is done with a hook and lure/bait. The slow forward motion of the boat makes the lure or bait appear to be alive, or the movement attracts the fish's eye.
Just a fun fact.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson