<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for An influx of jellies in strange places is not so hard to explain]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by Sam Wells http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/ Wed, 28 Nov 2007 10:38:56 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/1 freaky jellies

I remember a massive invasion of Lion's Mane jellyfish in Long Island Sound about 1973, never saw anything like it since.  Of course, we blamed it on the nuclear facility down by New London back then, very fashionable.

Not sure about fish that eat the jellies but some sea turtles will.  That's exactly why plastic bags in the ocean are so devastating ... they can't poop and then they die.  

Onward through the fog

]]> freaky jellies

I remember a massive invasion of Lion's Mane jellyfish in Long Island Sound about 1973, never saw anything like it since.  Of course, we blamed it on the nuclear facility down by New London back then, very fashionable.

Not sure about fish that eat the jellies but some sea turtles will.  That's exactly why plastic bags in the ocean are so devastating ... they can't poop and then they die.  

Onward through the fog

]]> Comment #2 by Pangolin http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/ Wed, 28 Nov 2007 15:57:26 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/2 Jellies like cold water too....

About 20 years ago when I went on a summer jaunt to a fishing town in Southeast Alaska I noticed the amazing number of jelly fish that inhabited the waters off the docks. It turned out that the jellies were able to thrive on the wash water from the canneries that was dumped into the sound.

That water was about 40 degrees farenheit in midsummer and an astounding number of jellies were usually visible just looking over the dock. I think jellies like lack of predation and pollution more than just warm water.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> Jellies like cold water too....

About 20 years ago when I went on a summer jaunt to a fishing town in Southeast Alaska I noticed the amazing number of jelly fish that inhabited the waters off the docks. It turned out that the jellies were able to thrive on the wash water from the canneries that was dumped into the sound.

That water was about 40 degrees farenheit in midsummer and an astounding number of jellies were usually visible just looking over the dock. I think jellies like lack of predation and pollution more than just warm water.

Put the Carbon Back

]]> Comment #3 by suzannah http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/ Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:11:19 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/3 a quick response

Hi, Suzannah from Oceana here. There are some jellies that thrive in colder waters, like the lion's mane, but the species that destroyed the fish farm was way north of its usual warm-water habitat. That is certainly unnatural.

Sea turtles are a major predator of jellies, but the freaky-looking common mola, or ocean sunfish, is one fish that consumes jellies.

]]> a quick response

Hi, Suzannah from Oceana here. There are some jellies that thrive in colder waters, like the lion's mane, but the species that destroyed the fish farm was way north of its usual warm-water habitat. That is certainly unnatural.

Sea turtles are a major predator of jellies, but the freaky-looking common mola, or ocean sunfish, is one fish that consumes jellies.

]]> Comment #4 by Sam Wells http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/ Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:36:05 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/4 Interesting critters

Thanks Suzannah ... one of the freakier stories was from the summer before last when several (maybe hundreds) of Portuguese Man-O-War were discovered off Block Island, Long Island, and lower Cape Cod.  This is a true tropical jelly - really a "siphonophore" if my memory still works (ugh!).

Down here on the Texas Gulf Coast we swim with M-O-W all the time but the folks up north freaked out, of course.  

Last summer the Connecticut DEP reported very low counts of comb jellies, which was also thought to be rather odd.  

Onward through the fog

]]> Interesting critters

Thanks Suzannah ... one of the freakier stories was from the summer before last when several (maybe hundreds) of Portuguese Man-O-War were discovered off Block Island, Long Island, and lower Cape Cod.  This is a true tropical jelly - really a "siphonophore" if my memory still works (ugh!).

Down here on the Texas Gulf Coast we swim with M-O-W all the time but the folks up north freaked out, of course.  

Last summer the Connecticut DEP reported very low counts of comb jellies, which was also thought to be rather odd.  

Onward through the fog

]]> Comment #5 by BlindfoldedNinja http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/ Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:54:53 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/5 End of the world or just the end of us?

Don't take this as a neo-Christian rant, or fuel for any neo-Christian rants, but hearing about red jelly fish making a sea look 'posessed' reminds me of a Revalation prophesy where "The seas shall become red as blood"

-Kinda creepy-

]]> End of the world or just the end of us?

Don't take this as a neo-Christian rant, or fuel for any neo-Christian rants, but hearing about red jelly fish making a sea look 'posessed' reminds me of a Revalation prophesy where "The seas shall become red as blood"

-Kinda creepy-

]]> Comment #6 by Blueplanet http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/ Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:24:10 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/a-jelly-new-world/6 Overfishing

I completely agree with you that these jellyfish blooms are caused by overfishing. Immature jellyfish are zooplankton and what eats zooplankton? Fish. The same fish that would normally feed our seabirds and their chicks. It is no coincidence that our seabirds are failing to breed successfully due to lack of food and we are now having huge blooms of jellyfish.

http://www.blueplanetsociety.org

]]> Overfishing

I completely agree with you that these jellyfish blooms are caused by overfishing. Immature jellyfish are zooplankton and what eats zooplankton? Fish. The same fish that would normally feed our seabirds and their chicks. It is no coincidence that our seabirds are failing to breed successfully due to lack of food and we are now having huge blooms of jellyfish.

http://www.blueplanetsociety.org

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