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Scientists Says Jellyfish Are Taking Over the Oceans
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Karla Cripps reports at CNN that a combination of overfishing, warming water, low oxygen and pollution are creating perfect conditions for jellyfish to multiply. "The jellyfish seem to be the ones that are flourishing in this while everything else is suffering," says Australian jellyfish researcher Lisa-ann Gershwin. In 2000, a bloom of sea tomato jellyfish in Australia was so enormous — it stretched for more than 1,000 miles from north to south — that it was even visible from space. While most blooms are not quite that big, Gershwin's survey of research on jellyfish from the last few decades indicate that populations are most likely on the rise, and that this boom is taking place in an ocean that is faced with overfishing, acid rain, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and climate change, among other problems. This past summer, southern Europe experienced one of its worst jellyfish infestations ever. Experts there have been reporting a steady increase in the number of jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea for years. With more than 2,000 species of jellyfish swimming through the world's waters, most stings are completely harmless, some will leave you in excruciating pain, then there are the killers. There are several species of big box jellyfish that have caused many deaths — these include chironex fleckeri in Australia, known as the "most lethal jellyfish in the world whose sting can kill in three minutes. "Just the lightest brush — you don't even feel it — and then, whammo, you're in more pain than you ever could have imagined, and you are struggling to breathe and you can't move your limbs and you can't stop vomiting and your blood pressure just keeps going up and up," says Gershwin. "It is really surprising how many places they occur around the world — places you would never expect: Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida, Wales, New Caledonia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India ... as well as Australia.""
Time to dust off that recipe for sesame jelly fish with chili sauce.
Many endangered species, such as sea turtles, eat jellyfish.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
Something else for the environment list to get all uppity about. When are they going to realize we live on a dynamic planet!?
I, for one, welcome our squishy little underlords.
Stay out of the ocean. Don't swim in the food chain.
Slashdot headline 50 years from now:
"Scientists Says Turtles Are Taking Over the Oceans"
(The typo is intentional, because even in 50 years, /. will still lack quality control.)
"It is really surprising how many places they occur around the world — places you would never expect: Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida, Wales, New Caledonia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India ... as well as Australia.""
No, places I would never expect would be Kansas, Siberia and the middle of the Sahara. If cable television has taught me anything, it's that the sea is out to kill me. If I can smell saltwater in the air, I'm expecting some explosion of deadliness.
Does anyone know how vulnerable dolphins are to jellyfish stings? They don't have a layer of protective scales like fish, and there is a long-standing mystery regarding dolphin beachings.
Scientists say, or Scientist says - please not Scientists says
I, for one, welcome our new jellyfish overlords.
I Soviet Russia, jellyfish sting you! wait.. that one doesn't work.
and of course:
frist post! posted from my raspberry pi.
this signature has been removed due to a DMCA takedown notice
Those jellyfish are coming right at us!
Capital letter for genus, lower case for species. Like Homo sapiens. Not "Homo Sapiens" or "homo sapiens". The two parts of a species name should also be italicized (i.e. Chironex fleckeri). Although it's a little technical, it's not a hard rule to remember when using species names.
So, in your universe, science is something that always gives 100% certain answers?
Can't we find a use for them? As soon as capitalism gets to work on them, they'll be goners too.
Let's hear it from greedy fisherman and their right-wing supporters, who think it's humanity's God-given right to rape the oceans and trash the food chain upon which everything depends... human greed will do us in for sure, because it overrides even the survival instinct.
that grammar nazis should take over slashdot
Anyway once the jellyfish have eaten all the fish in the area, what do they live on?
I've seen Google Maps. My car is "visible from space."
Just surprised they didn't find a way to blame nuclear energy too.
That will be when they find Jellyzilla. Searches are currently active in Tokyo Bay.
Those endangered species are endangered because we're killing them, not merely because they don't have enough jellyfish.
Funny enough:
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/11/07/10/0234250/millions-of-jellyfish-invade-nuclear-reactors
http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/10/01/2123254/new-threat-to-seaside-nuclear-plants-datacenters-jellyfish
They don't need to blame nuclear energy, they are working in concert with the jellyfish to shut them down.
Next in the nuclear arms race will be some sort of aquatic animal with lasers attached to their heads clean out the jellyfish infestations.
As many species are going extinct, the "common cockroach" is flourishing and multiplying.
I often go crabbing up the indian arm in Vancouver - during summer the last 3 years i've noticed a ridiculous amount of jellyfish.. you literally cannot look anywhere in the water and not see jellyfish... pulling a crab trap up through the water column sees you cutting through like 100 of them.
So, in your universe, science is something that always gives 100% certain answers?
So in your world, gravity works, "mostly sometimes" but not 100%?
jellyfish - I hate jellyfish!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL3ZIc5IL2w
"it was even visible from space"
... but even one of China's own astronauts admitted that he couldn't pick it out from Low Earth Orbit.)
My house is "visible from space": it's right there on Google Maps. This phrase is meaningless, because it's almost entirely a function of weather, the camera being used, and whether something is covered.
(On the other hand, it's often parroted that the Great Wall of China is "the only man-made object visible from space"
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Put the territory under some sort of corporate or government control and let the employees in charge of the territory use deadly force to stop the poachers. Works quite well in Africa where their game reserve rangers can put a .308 through you quite legally if they catch you hunting endangered species.
...welcome our new gelatinous overlords.
Any hotties need me to pee on their jellyfish stings?
Give a more profitable use to jellyfish (even if it is for making glow-in-the-dark ice cream, or other uses) better than "normal" fishes and the balance could be reached again... before is too late.
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2013/sep/26/jellyfish-theyre-taking-over/?pagination=false
As part of the Obama Administration's commitment to expand access to data and give consumers more transportation options that save money at the pump, the Energy Department today launched a new mobile app to help drivers find stations that provide alternative fuel for vehicles.
I, for one, WELCOME our new invertebrate overlords.
Go Pods!
And of course it follows that if these populations are on the rise (and they MAYBE are, probably) then it's the fault of all the environmentalists' usual suspects.
Those environmentalists are a bunch of nutjobs.
It is obvious that this increase in jellyfish is a sign of the imminent awakening of great Cthulhu.
Don't trust any government claiming we have a new ocean food source.
In my universe, scientists studying gravity still aren't completely sure how it works. I would expect the same to be true of jellyfish -- especially since we've had far less time to study them than we have had to study gravity.
The OP suggested, because Gershwin expressed uncertainty about his conclusion, that research on jellyfish populations must be pseudoscientific. That's total bullcrap.
There are some countries that will not never stop over-fishing. I cannot imaging that carbon emissions will go down anytime soon.
Her conclusion.
Fugu me.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Dory: [sees a very small baby jellyfish] I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy Come on, Squishy Come on, little Squishy...
[makes baby talk and slowly touches the jellyfish, getting shocked]
Dory: [pulling her fin away quickly] Ow! Bad squishy, bad squishy!
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
Restore the plankton and you've restored the bottom of the food chain.
The plankton have died off by at least 40% over the past 60 years. John Martin at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute hypothesized in the early 90's that the die-off was due to diminishing iron in the ocean surface waters. He was quoted as saying "Give me a freighter full of iron fertilizer and I'll give you an ice age." meaning that spraying iron onto the ocean's surface would re-populate the plankton and they in turn would consume the excess CO2 that's currently acidifying the oceans.
In 2002, MBARI validated his hypothesis that spraying iron fertilizer would engender a plankton bloom. Subsequent studies have replicated MBARI's results.
Seems to me that if someone were to claim a 100 square mile chunk of ocean, they could fertilize it, seed it with anchovies and start a very profitable aqua farm. They would be harvesting a variety of predator fish such as bass and tuna once they discovered the anchovies feasting on the plankton. Since the farm wouldn't harvest all of the carbon the plankton consumed, it'd be a net carbon sink.
Humans (and other vertebratans) have been feeding on mollusca denizens for centuries...and they are getting pissed off about it. Snails, clams, octopus, squid, abalone, and geoducks...we've had our fill and then some. Not to mention the unspeakable things humans routinely do to slugs. Molluscans have had enough of our abuse and they are coming after us.
Jellyfish-powered cars?
You don't understand science do you?
Which is fine, just shut you yap about it and stay out of politics.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Oh overuse of any limited resource will surely stop. One way or another.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
SyFy now has a new milkcow: Great White JellyShark!
Man-o-warriors?
Ray stingers?
Bobbers... OF DEATH!?
it's jellyfish all the way up, now.
Not this again... capitalism has created this problem and the solution to jellyfish (by capitalism) is a swimming pool. It doesn't fucking work because there isn't anything inherent in capitalism that stops shit like this from happening or even makes it try to repair the damages.
I just went to the beach yesterday. I didn't see any jellyfish.
This is just a natural predator-prey cycle. Mankind has no impact on this.
Whaddaya mean Orange Ruffy is $1,437 / lb?!!! That's an outrage!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
In my country, terawatt globes are reserved for police helicopter chases and warning sailors of hazardous shoals. This is despite the fact that practically every living creature there can kill you in under three minutes. Our primary spoken language is screaming.
http://www.27bslash6.com/halogen.html
Not this again... capitalism has created this problem and the solution to jellyfish (by capitalism) is a swimming pool. It doesn't fucking work because there isn't anything inherent in capitalism that stops shit like this from happening or even makes it try to repair the damages.
If we ever try capitalism again, it will be possible to file a class action lawsuit against the corporations who incurred the damages. Shielding them from liability like we do now is corporate fascism, not capitalism.
Jellyfish is a delicacy in China. Maybe if the seafood restaurants around the world can start promoting jellyfish as a Chinese delicacy, we balance the seas out again.
Well, now that the election is over, CNN needs something to impartially report on besides its week-long hammering on the discrepancies between rich and poor.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
... we need to learn how to eat them.
Lobster used to be prisoner food, until someone got the bright idea to use the newly available railroad to sell canned lobster to inland dwellers who didn't know better and considered all seafood a delicacy.
Foie gras used to simply be a kosher source of cooking fat (since lard isn't kosher). It wasn't until the French gourmands elevated it to a delicacy.
Build ships which vaccuum up jellyfish, puree them, and use the proteins as feed stock for 3D printing of food. The stingers can get filtered out, or just left into the low-grade product used in prisons and orphanages.
I'm sure that Red Lobster can come up with some clever marketing term for this stuff. After the actual lobsters, cod, and king crabs die off they'll have plenty of motivation.
Interesting Geek-culture historical note: In the 1973 movie "Soylent Green," the titular product is supposed to be made from krill scooped from the oceans. The underlying horror of the movie isn't that the crackers are made of dead people, but that the ocean ecosystem has collapsed due to pollution. The movie also has Edward G. Robinson bitching about how the greenhouse effect has made it hot and damp year-round.
Hawaii, The Carribean, Florida, Nevada, Alberta, The Congo, The White House, On A Plane, In Your Fridge...
Born to Play
In my universe, scientists studying gravity still aren't completely sure how it works.
No, we're pretty good on the HOW.
It's the WHY we're working on.
You don't understand science do you?
This isn't science. Its activism that cloaks itself as science.
Which is fine, just shut you yap about it and stay out of politics.
Ironic charge coming from a political activist.
The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
What about feeding people indirectly y first feeding the jellyfish to some animal that humans eat? Could jellyfish be made into feed for salmon or other fish farm fish species and if so, what effect would that have on the nutritional contents of the farmed fish?
Well, here in Sweedeen wee like to burn things for elektricity and heet...
Maybe you can send us some of your jellyfish? Preferably dried. Uh, and don't ask me how you'll dry thousands of tonnes of jellyfish in a reasonably environmentally sound manner.
Oh and it might be possible to turn wet jellyfish into methane, which is a good vehicle fuel.
Lets see.... I haven't worked there in almost 2 years, so the buddy i was working with was almost 4 years, and it was a year or two between then and when we were going out drinking after work so....
Yah it was about 6 years ago, heading back and forth between work and the bar.... which happens to be in a marina our building was 1 street back from the docks).... we were walking by, looking down and saying...
"Fuck that is a lot of jellyfish" .... taking over the ocean"
"More than I ever seen, its like they are
I mean, I know we were looking at a vanishingly small sample but.... if other areas looked like the harbor here did then.... taking over is no understatement.
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Wow! A brainless, lump of jelly ruling Australia... Who'da thunk?!
I for one welcome our jelly-based overlords.. We might get some actually useful policies for once!
I, for one, welcome our Jellyfish overlords.
I mean, if jellyfish were planning to take over the world, they'd have the largest ones in the world in Puget Sound, where the Pacific Ocean is right next to Seattle ...
Oh.
Wait.
And we'd be bioengineering jellyfish genes into other DNA sequences here at the UW.
Um. ...
I for one welcome our Jellyfish Overlords!
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Gravity seems to not be working as expected on large distances. We call that "dark energy". We have no clue what it is, and therefore cannot really predict what it will do in the future. All we know for sure is that our previous predictions (without dark energy) were wrong.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Peanut Butter and Jellyfish on toast. Mmm Mmmm good.
You can trace just about everything back to human overpopulation. It's why we need to develop long term sustainable artificial living environments for extended travel in deep space and perhaps ultimately terraforming technologies. There are other options as well such as voluntary consciousness uploads into electronic environments concurrent with organic body destruction. A peaceful "soft deflation" using various incentives is also an option though not nearly as exciting for the imagination as the more high-tech stuff. It's all science fiction right now but well within the realm of human achievement provided we can avoid the dystopia route. If I were placing bets though I'd say the latter is more probable.
"places you would never expect: Hawaii, Caribbean, Florida, Wales, New Caledonia, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines, India ... as well as Australia."
chironex flecker have not been detected in Wales
dammit, too late
I've heard that applying the non-poisonous parts of jellyfish to your face reduces wrinkles and reverse the effects of skin aging.
I've been saying it for years, but nobody will listen! Jellyfish aren't from this planet at all, they're intelligent aliens creating global warming to xenoform our planet to better serve their purposes!
Why won't anybody believe me?!?
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
Last year I got stung by a fairly common benign species of jellyfish called a blue bottle in the surf on a hot summer's day swim.
I came up to the surface with the thing about a meter in front of me and immediately tried to escape. The tentacle wrapped around my left arm from my knuckles to the armpit, across the chest and onto the right are and, somehow, on my right left.
The Lifesavers (clubbies) saw the whole thing as I got out of the surf two of them helped me over to the clubhouse and doused me we very hot water. Over the next three hours I had icepacks all over me and a nurse debated whether I would go to hospital as I just hung onto consciousness due to shock. The pain was astounding, my glands were inflated and later it felt like my testicles had been massaged by a hammer. I had welts on my arms for a couple of weeks from the sting. A year later I am still pulling stingers out of my arms which come up as painful little pimple like things that bleed and take about two weeks to heal (I'm looking at three now).
That's "a fairly common benign species of jellyfish".
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
http://www.hulu.com/watch/197316 Very relevant. Set aside an hour to watch this. Free to watch, though you have to put up with ad breaks.
jellyfish - I hate jellyfish!
China loves Jellyfish.
For the Chinese, Jellyfish can be turned into delicious cuisines. Click the following link to find out ...
http://bit.ly/1auPceQ
...am getting sick and tired of this lame old joke.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Can they be converted in to a food supplement or fertilizer?
Can we convince someone they are good for the libido (sexual appetite/performance)?
Can they be made in to a soup, something like shark fins?
Can they be incorporated in to a cosmetic?
Achieve any of the above and we will begin to fish them in to extinction, problem solved.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
... and solution to all the world's problems. Find a marketable use for jellyfish.
Hmm ... can you make a dangerous recreational drug out of the things? Jelly-meth?
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
...welcome our new tentacled, invading, gelatinous, stingy, phosphorescent, translucent, polypous overlords.
The sooner humans are cleared off this planet, the sooner the aliens can move in.
But I like jellyfish! They're crunchy and tasty and so tentacly good!
Pnårp's docile & perfunctory page!