Club Medusae

Jellyfish are everywhere, and that's not a good thing

Posted at 11:33 AM on 18 Jun 2008

Jellyfish. Photo: Neil Harmon via Flickr

The natural cycle of Mediterranean jellyfish populations is to swell every 12 years, plateau for four to six years, then subside. But massive groups of gelatinous jellies have been showing up for the past eight years, and they show no sign of flagging. In fact, jellies are proliferating worldwide, and that makes scientists nervous. "Jellyfish are an excellent bellwether for the environment," says oceanographer Jacqueline Goy. "The more jellyfish, the stronger the signal that something has changed." That "something" is, no doubt, an increase in human meddling: as humans pull tons of fish out of the world's seas, jellyfish move in; as human activity heats the climate, jellyfish take advantage of warmer waters to procreate like squishy, brainless rabbits.

source: Agence France-Presse
see also, in Grist: Northern Ireland and Japan plagued by jellyfish

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Comments: (5 comments)

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What About Ocean Acidification?

This article fails to mention the main reason for the unnatural proliferation of jellyfish: acidification of the oceans from human emissions of CO2. I have no doubt that overfishing and global warming are also significant factors, but they are not the main reason for this problem.

by Wolverine at 12:03 PM on 18 Jun 2008

Jellyfish of War

Well, now we know that when the water runs out for our water torture practices we will have an ocean of jellyfish to turn to...

by savee419 at 1:20 PM on 18 Jun 2008

Jellanol floats economy

Where are the deniers? Aren't you supposed to tell us not to worry because scientists were predicting a jellyfish shortage in the 1970's? Or, maybe Vinod Khosla can grind them up into a biofuel and call it jellanol.

by infp at 2:05 PM on 18 Jun 2008

"gelatinous jellies"?!

Let us not gild refined gold, neither paint the lily.

Jellyfish are among the most wondrous living creatures on Earth,

because they are both beautiful, and trash, too easily common; and
because they are apparently unutilizable, and unexploitable, and therefore are allowed to proliferate; and
because in English they have such a happy-sounding name, while in Latinate Greek they sound rather forbidding.

Find a profitable business use for jellyfish, and, depend on it!, huge ships will be trawling the oceans next year, specially designed to scoop them up and process them; jellyfish will be endangered in no time.

In fact, jellyfish are pro-nature heroes. We should admire them, instead of vilifying them.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 8:15 AM on 19 Jun 2008

Canis

The problem is not jellyfish per se. They are obviously a natural and necessary part of the oceans, and many are very beautiful. The problem is that acidifying the oceans, overfishing, and global warming are causing the jellyfish populations to become unnaturally and harmfully large. The study from Australia a couple of years ago found that human-caused acidifying of the oceans due to CO2 emissions will eventually cause the oceans to devolve into what they were 200 million years ago, with a preponderance of jellyfish.

by Wolverine at 12:34 PM on 19 Jun 2008

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