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Green Facts
10,000 Jellies?
Population booms of jellyfish have caused mobs swarming through oceans that are becoming a huge threat to swimmers, fisherman, and even the nuclear power industry. It’s hard to think that these rubbery creatures are causing millions of dollars of damage, but there’s an even bigger question about why these creatures are blooming while other fish are dying.
Since 1996, Muave stingers have been a creeping problem. With a system of attacking and retreating, these particular jellies always seem to turn up with extra back up for the next attack. In a more recent attack in 2006, 60 million swarmed Spanish beaches, reporting more than 70,000 people stung and swollen thus causing beaches to close throughout the region. It seems like these fish have a mind of their own, even attacking in Japan where a nuclear power plant stays. According to reports, the jellies blocked cooler pumps in the sea which link to reactors inside.
Jellyfish can cause much more damage than people typically give them credit for. Known as the “cockroaches” of the sea, their bodies can cause fishing nets to burst; they can even crush or poison a load of captured fish. Some jellies can even kill, such as the notorious box jelly, with just a sting.
They’re the perfect predators of the ocean. With over 200 classified species, it’s not a surprise that their success of adaptability could be because they are composed of more than 90% water. Global warming, an issue that is causing a huge decline of ocean life, is surprisingly causing jellyfish to thrive, growing vigorously and healthily.
Blooming, or producing, is a formation depending on ocean currents, nutrients, temperature, predation, and oxygen concentrations. In the simplest terms, global warming and other selfish human causes are to blame and have created the easiest way for these “cockroaches” to live and breed. Even nutrients from land that can also cause dead zones, give off a simple way to feed these packs of jellyfish.
Blooms are known to reach 10,000 jellies each, of course not counting the varying sizes of the jellies. But the size of a jellyfish is nothing compared to the pain it causes when a person or animal is stung. From fingernail size to eight feet in diameter, with tentacles spanning around 100 feet, some can cause excruciating pain for weeks and even months. A New York Times article reports sightings of numerous swarms of jellies from Spain, New York, Australia, Japan and Hawaii, “Jellyfish are showing where they have rarely been seen before.”
Jellyfish’s archenemy is the sea turtle, but with the dangerous habitats of the ocean and beaches, sea turtles cannot survive like the jelly and in fact all seven species of sea turtles are threatened.
The alarm of the jellyfish has scientists stumped; some think it’s a revolt, others think it’s a sign of the declining health of ocean life. In an interview from Examiner.com, Lucas Brotz, a University of British Columbia researcher, says, “ These increases in jellyfish should be a warning sign that our oceans are stressed and unhealthy.” It is still a hard concept for scientists to grab, whether these creatures are blooming because of global warming or not, “one of the problems with identifying changes in jelly fish populations is they fluctuate with so much variability. One year you see a million, and the next year there wont be any.”
