What You Need to Know About the Coming Jellyfish Apocalypse
Source: Mother Jones
Millions of golden jellyfish (Mastigias papua etpisonii) swim inside an isolated marine lake in Palau.
Ethan Daniels/Shutterstock
More than 50 million Americans swim in the oceans every year (there are actual government surveys of such things). So if your summer plans involves stripping down and bathing in the sun and salt water of your dreams, read on, intrepid beach-goer. There's something gooey and stingy that's loving warm waters every bit as much as you are (maybe even more), turning those dreams...to nightmares: jellyfish.
Are there more jellyfish now than ever before?
In some places, yes. One recent University of British Columbia study concluded that "jellyfish populations appear to be increasing in the majority of the world's coastal ecosystems and seas," and blamed human activity for these blooms. The areas most affected are the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, says Lucas Brotz, a PhD student and jellyfish expert at University of British Columbia's Fisheries Center, and co-author of the report.
Last October, a swarm of jellyfish plugged cooling pipes for one of the world's largest nuclear reactors.
The influx of jellyfish can cause big problems. In October last year, a gelatinous swarm plugged cooling pipes for one of the world's largest nuclear reactors, on the Baltic coast in Sweden, shutting it down. A swarm hobbled a coal-fired power plant near Hadera on the Israeli coast in 2011. Millions of bulging, translucent creatures descended on popular Mediterranean beaches in April 2013, freaking out the tourists. Jellyfish expert Lisa-ann Gershwin writes in her 2013 book Stung! that jellyfish caused the collapse of the $350 million Black Sea fishing industry in the 1990s. In 2007, a plague wiped out a salmon farm off Northern Ireland.
Read more: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/06/watch-out-summer-swimmers-here-come-jellyfish
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