Billions of mysterious jelly-fish-like creatures wash up on beaches along the west coast of the U.S

Since July, similar phenomena had been reported in the northern coast of Chile. In this case, not a common "jellyfish" .

The beaches of Arica (Chile) are covered with "Portuguese man o' war", in spanish "Fragata Portuguesa". This one in particular is dangerous.

Fragata Portuguesa reappeared and the bathroom was banned from beaches ariqueñas
The arrival of these invertebrate species led to the health authority to declare as affected area beaches in the region, ordering its closure until further evaluation.
08/17/2014
#FRAGATAPORTUGUESA

The Port of Arica, this afternoon confirmed the presence of the hydrozoan Physalia also called GENDER (Fragata Portuguesa) in coastal Chinchorro beach, Arica. This species of jellyfish is dangerous and contains a toxin that can cause damage to health or even death from cardiac arrest.

The arrival of these invertebrate species led to the health authority to declare as affected area beaches in the region, ordering its closure until further evaluation of the Health Authority, for swimmers and those who participate in sport and recreational water activities. For now the Maritime Authority is conducting constant monitoring on the waterfront in conjunction with the Health Authority.

The Maritime Authority called to take the following precautions to avoid contact with object hidrozoo this: no bathing or perform recreational games in the affected beaches Medusa, do not touch these invertebrates beings and walking areas are using shoes and clothing prevent accidental contact with whole bodies or parts of the Portuguese frigate which are dead. In case of contact Maritime Authority makes the following recommendations:

- Those with inadvertent contact with the jellyfish, must go to the nearest health center, taken as a first step to wash the area with saline or diluted in water bicarbonate.

I wouldn't mess with this one :

The Portuguese man o' war (Physalia physalis), also known as the Portuguese man-of-war, man-of-war, or bluebottle is a marine cnidarian of the family Physaliidae. Its venomous tentacles can deliver a painful sting.

www.soychile.cl...
www.prensaescrita.com...://www.estrellaarica.cl
en.wikipedia.org...

i know this isnt a great post but that first picture looks like a container ship full of cheap jackets crashed or somthing lol

I saw these just this last week in the Bay Area. I grew up there and have never seen them before so bent over to investigate. I sorta poked (gently) with a napkin and its sail slumped over as if it was shriveling to protect itself. I think I killed it though. It seemed as if I did because the sail was shut tight to its body and it seemed to shrink or disintegrate. Just from a slight touch. I looked around and saw a bunch more so called my son over. We both just slumped our shoulders but I did tell him to be careful where he stepped as they clearly were a jelly like fish. New to me.

a reply to: Plugin

This is very serious actually..

The article you linked (link) mentions how the increase in Jellyfish populations are due (in part) to the acidification of the ocean due to excess CO2 in our atmosphere.

"Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. An estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes. To achieve chemical equilibrium, some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion, thus increasing ocean "acidity" (H+ ion concentration). Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14, representing an increase of almost 30% in H+ ion concentration in the world's oceans. Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogs and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and many ocean goods and services." - en.wikipedia.org...


The article mentions how the Black Sea's biomass is now 95% jellyfish.

"When they are in control, they can throw off the food chain."

They found jellyfish in lake oroville (Northern California) too.... Interesting #

originally posted by: Tardacus

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: Plugin

Now we have to be afraid that the jellyfish are going to take out a nuclear power plant and causing a major event.

Al Qadea jellyfish?!?! Quick someone call DHS!!

I`m really surprised that someone hasn`t found a commercial use for jellyfish yet, maybe in the medical industry?

Lol, their nick name is 'man o' war' for good reason! Their sting hurts like buggery, especially when scuba diving!

a reply to: Biigs

well how about this pic from La Push, Washington state, you really get to see the scale here

a reply to: Lady_Tuatha

Wow. That really puts it in perspective. Somethings up.

a reply to: Lady_Tuatha

wow my news in the AU must be delayed cos it is just on the webpage now. omg

what a terrible sign ... terrible

This should be flagged to the hilt and on the front page... TPTB are distracting us from the truth of a major environmental catastrophe.

BILLIONS of them ??? wow.

that is a huge chunk out of the great chain of life... something is definitely going on ... and it aint good.

originally posted by: nOraKat
a reply to: Plugin

This is very serious actually..

The article you linked (link) mentions how the increase in Jellyfish populations are due (in part) to the acidification of the ocean due to excess CO2 in our atmosphere.

"Ocean acidification is the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth's oceans, caused by the uptake of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere. An estimated 30–40% of the carbon dioxide released by humans into the atmosphere dissolves into oceans, rivers and lakes. To achieve chemical equilibrium, some of it reacts with the water to form carbonic acid. Some of these extra carbonic acid molecules react with a water molecule to give a bicarbonate ion and a hydronium ion, thus increasing ocean "acidity" (H+ ion concentration). Between 1751 and 1994 surface ocean pH is estimated to have decreased from approximately 8.25 to 8.14, representing an increase of almost 30% in H+ ion concentration in the world's oceans. Earth System Models project that within the last decade ocean acidity exceeded historical analogs and in combination with other ocean biogeochemical changes could undermine the functioning of marine ecosystems and many ocean goods and services." - en.wikipedia.org...


The article mentions how the Black Sea's biomass is now 95% jellyfish.

"When they are in control, they can throw off the food chain."

I agree!!!!!



Whatever they eat and eats them will be affected....

Really serious stuff

originally posted by: Thurisaz
This should be flagged to the hilt and on the front page... TPTB are distracting us from the truth of a major environmental catastrophe.

BILLIONS of them ??? wow.

that is a huge chunk out of the great chain of life... something is definitely going on ... and it aint good.

relax, ants are a larger biomass than humans.

the earth won't collapse in on itself and create a black hole with a few billion jellyfish. you know they don't weigh anything when in the water.

we need more peanut butter!

a reply to: tsingtao

are you being sarcastic?

a reply to: Thurisaz

The death of a zillion jellyfish isn't the problem, it's a symptom of the problem.

Jellyfish are one of the few species that thrive in acidic conditions and they are displacing all others.

With the population explosion comes massive die-offs.

Good movie about ocean acidification released in 2013.

www.youtube.com...

"Human life may not be possible".

Yikes!

a reply to: Psynic

yes... I liked what you wrote:

"they can throw off the food chain"

the other info via you tube is, for me... logical.

a reply to: Lady_Tuatha
I am more amazed that People don't see the greater significance of this event.

a reply to: Plugin

We should perhaps make jellyfish a consumer/food product, or for other usages.

Funny you should mention the other uses thing...just musing about how it looks after looking at the close up picture, and remembering they float on the surface naturally exposed to the sunlight...i noticed that the concentric circular shape of the creature, just underneath its transparent fin, looks very much like a solar concentrator aka a Fresnel lens....

What if this is how it derives some of it's energy?

Maybe the Fresnel lens concentrates the sunlight to fall onto it's opaque dark body underneath..perhaps it has pigments that act in a similar way to Chlorophyll in plants?

The article did say the researchers know very little about this creature...maybe if we discovered there were specialised, sunlight absorbing cells in its body, we might be able to make use of copying this ability in our solar energy devices to increase performance..?

Any biologists stimulated yet?

a reply to: MysterX

You know... I was having the same thought. The universe/mother nature bashing us over the head with a design to generate power?...