Currently, at the Scientific America website is an interesting article about jellyfish. The article written by Katherine Harmon is called "Jellyfish Jamboree--Are They Set to Seize the Seas?" and includes a slide show of jellyfish. Katherine Harmon begins this article by stating:
"Bloomin' jellyfish! Overfishing, climate change and ocean dead zones may be downers for humans and other critters, but they turn out to be a boon for jellyfish schools, reports the recent "Jellyfish Joyride" paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
A surge in jellyfish populations may eventually lead to what study authors call "a less desirable gelatinous state," which could have "lasting ecological, economic and social consequences."
To read the remainder of this article go to:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=jellyfish-jamboree
According to an article at: http://www.news24.com/News24/Technology/News/0,,2-13-1443_2441803,00.html
"Huge swarms of stinging jellyfish and similar slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, US researchers reported on Friday.
The report says 150 million people are exposed to jellyfish globally every year, with 500 000 people stung in the Chesapeake Bay, off the US Atlantic Coast, alone.
Another 200 000 are stung every year in Florida, and 10 000 are stung in Australia by the deadly Portuguese man-of-war, according to the report, a broad review of jellyfish research.
The report, available on the internet at www.nsf.gov, says the Black Sea's fishing and tourism industries have lost $350m because of a proliferation of comb jelly fish.
The jellyfish eat the eggs of fish and compete with them for food, wiping out the livelihoods of fishermen, according to the report.
And it says a third of the total weight of all life in California's Monterey Bay is made up of jellyfish.
Human activities that could be making things nice for jellyfish include pollution, climate change, introductions of non-native species, overfishing and building artificial structures such as oil and gas rigs.
Creatures called salps cover up to 100,000 sq km of the North Atlantic in a regular phenomenon called the New York Bight, but researchers quoted in the report said this one may be a natural cycle.
"There is clear, clean evidence that certain types of human-caused environmental stresses are triggering jellyfish swarms in some locations," William Hamner of the University of California Los Angeles says in the report.
These include pollution-induced "dead zones", higher water temperatures and the spread of alien jellyfish species by shipping."
According to J. E. Purcell, W. W. Graham, and H. J. Dumont, editors, in the book, "Jellyfish Blooms: Ecological and Societal Importance",
"Jellyfish are to the oceans what pigeons are to cities. Both animals seem to be able to flourish in environments that have been radically altered by human activities.
In many places around the world, jellyfish populations are dramatically increasing. Although the increase may be part of a natural cycle in some areas, the overall upward trend far exceeds anything that would be naturally expected. The suspected cause of the increase is human disruption of coastal ecosystems and other human-induced environmental stress, such as nutrification of the water from sewage or fertilizer runoff, overfishing of competitor fish species, depletion of sea turtle populations, and rising water temperatures from global warming.
The proliferation of jellyfish has caused record numbers of stings—some resulting in fatalities—of beachgoers and aquatic sports enthusiasts in Hawaii, New Zealand, and Australia, among other places. Likewise, the booming jellyfish populations have wreaked severe economic damage in the Gulf of Mexico and some other places where fishing nets are now filled with slimy gelatin instead of succulent shrimp.
So again we have human actions causing a dramatic change in the natural balance of life in the World. Let us hope for the sake of those who like to visit and swim in the oceans of the world, that steps are taken to educate people about their role in the proliferation of jellyfish in the World's acquatic regions,so that behavioral changes will allow these jellyfish populations to be returned to what they used to be, in balance with the other life forms in the oceans and other water areas where
marine life exists on our planet.
So see a United States National Foundation video about jellyfish go to:http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp
Source of image:http://www.pdphoto.com/
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