“Jellyfish are demanding our attention right now and we should be giving it to them. Those stings are an indication that something is wrong with our oceans — and we’re silly that we’re not listening”. Lisa Gershwin, Commonwealth Scientific, and Industrial Research Organisation (Australia) ht WP
Jellyfish have been in the oceans for over 500 million years which makes them older than the dinosaurs and trees according to the Australian Broadcasting Company. The creatures described as "brainless, spineless, eyeless and bloodless is not meant as a comparison to tRump, but as a warning that the health of the ocean is declining rapidly.
Hong Jiang and Sasha Fegan write:
Some scientists think jellyfish numbers are increasing as the climate changes — the creatures reproduce well in warmer waters.
Jellyfish also fare better than many other sea creatures in polluted waters, as they don't need much oxygen.
Berwald says that can give them the upper hand over predators.
"They can sort of slip into polluted waters, into low oxygen waters, and hide from predation there better than a fish that has a higher oxygen demand," she says.
Overfishing is also part of the story.
"There's a situation in Namibia ... where there was uncontrolled illegal fishing for many, many years, so it depleted the ecosystem," Berwald explains.
"Then there was a sort of warming that happened … and it allowed these two jellyfish to come into the ecosystem there.
"[Jellyfish] numbers have proliferated so much that when fisherman fish there now they will get two to three times the [mass weight] of jellyfish to fish."
Many scientists don't think the ocean ecosystem can revert back to what it was, and it's unclear as to whether fish can come back to rebalance the system.
Jellyfish being removed from the cooling system of a power plant in Hadera, Israel. Jellyfish have also caused plants to shut down in Japan."One jellyfish scientist from Japan told me that the first threat to the electric system in Japan is earthquakes, but the second is jellyfish," Berwald says. "We are dealing with a ubiquitous creature."The Washington Post also reported on this story. Rick Noack writes:
While researchers are still examining how much recent heat waves may have contributed to the current jellyfish bloom off Australia’s coasts, they can already say with certainty how they got to the beaches: strong and unusual winds pushing toward Queensland.
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While some scientists have been more careful about linking climate change and jellyfish blooms, given a lack of long-term data so far, most researchers agree that jellyfish populations respond positively to a number of human-induced changes, including pollution, overfishing and warmer water. “All of this takes out their predators and competitors, so they’re the ‘last men standing,’” said Gershwin.
From the Big Wobble.
It is one of the 21st-century indicators to the demise of the world's oceans and the problem is exploding around the world. jellyfish invasions are washing ashore all over the globe because of a lack of predators in the ocean to eat them. Vast numbers of bluebottle jellyfish have been pushed ashore in Queensland, Australia, stinging thousands of people and forcing the closure of swim spots. Surf Life Saving Queensland said thousands of people received treatment at the weekend.