Invasion of Giant Jellyfish

How do you tackle an invasion of giant jellyfish? Try making sushi

THEY are called echizen kurage and they sound like monsters from the trashier reaches of Japanese science fiction.
They are 6ft wide and weigh 450lb (200kg), with countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place.

Finally, the quarrelsome governments of the region are banding together to unite against the enemy.

Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of fishermen in the Sea of Japan. Nomura’s jellyfish, as it is known in English, is the biggest creature of its kind off Japan and for reasons that remain mysterious its numbers have surged in the past few months.

The problem has become so serious that fishery officials from Japan, China and South Korea are to meet this month for a “jellyfish summit” to discuss strategies for dealing with the invasion. Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party has formed a jellyfish countermeasures committee and fishermen are at work on technology to keep the marauders out of their nets.

The problem first became obvious in the late summer when fishermen chasing anchovies, salmon and yellowtail began finding huge numbers of the jellyfish in their nets.

Often the weight of the echizen kurage broke the nets or crushed the fish to death; those that survived were poisoned and beslimed by their tentacles.

Fishermen on the northern tip of Honshu, Japan’s main island, were forced to suspend work at the height of the lucrative salmon season.

In Akita prefecture some communities saw their incomes fall by 80 per cent. The gizzard shad fishers of South Korea have also been plagued by the Nomura’s.

In some places jellyfish density is reported to be a hundred times higher than normal. Worst of all, no one yet understands why. One theory is that global warming is heating up the seawater and encouraging jellyfish breeding.

more...

First, they are huge!!!

This is yet again another odd tale of something gone awry... What are these things eating??? I'd start there first....or what has changed about what eats them???

I've searched that Urban Legends website (which I am SURE I've seen this photograph on) and remember distinctly that the photograph was misleading (if not photoshopped, merely showing a jellyfish close to the camera). I'm not having any luck finding that photograph again, but I'm pretty sure this is full of misinterpretations and inaccuracies.

I found these images...



Jumbo jellyfish bedeviling local fishermen












Seems accurate to me...

No, this is a real thing. It has been reported in major newspapers, there was a fake giant jelly-fish picture going around ATS a whlie ago, but it was a different picture.

-- Boat

[edit on 7-12-2005 by Boatphone]

Interesting.

Love jellyfish - and they are COOL - about 650 million years old, as a species. With no brain. Talk about survival of the fittest.


So I did a quick search. Looks like the "jellyfish problem" started getting attention around the end of the 1990's.

Here's a PDF file report about an international conference held "to determine whether increased jellyfish abundance was really a new trend."

2001 - Jellyfish blooms: are populations increasing globally in response to changing ocean conditions? (PDF)

Australia Travel Advisories & Health Risks. Marine Hazards: The jellyfish population appears to be increasing, due in part to overfishing of jellyfish predators, rising water temperatures, and pollution.

Jellyfish have a short lifespan, the longest surviving species living only two to six months, usually perishing in rough waters or being eaten by predators—ocean sunfish and leatherback turtles are two of the most prevalent jellyfish predators.

More. I just really like jellyfish.

The Lion's Mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) is called the giant jellyfish. The Japanese giant species is stomolophus nomurai; the one native to the Phillipines is Anomalorhiza shawi.

But you're right loam - there seem to be other giant jellyfish species turning up - and some small species are growing. Like the Spotted jellyfish - it normally/used to be 6" to 8" in diameter - now they're growing to 2 feet!

Giant Jellyfish Invade Northern Gulf of Mexico; Could Threaten Gulf Shrimp, Crab Fisheries. 08-09-00

Giant "jellies" - up to two feet in diameter - have taken up residence in the northern Gulf of Mexico causing swimmers and fishermen to do a double take when they first spy them. Known as the "Spotted Jellyfish, "...

...they have already found indications that the jellies are reproductively active and growing to their large size due to the algae-rich Mississippi Sound.

"Normally, this species of jellyfish only grows to six or eight inches in diameter," says Perry. "Some of the things we investigating are how widespread the invasion is, what their feeding habits are, how much they eat, and whether they can survive over the winter months in the Gulf waters."

New Jellyfish Species Found in the Monterey Submarine Canyon - Big Red "They named the new genus "Tiburonia" after the aquarium's research vessel Tiburon, and the species "granrojo," Spanish for big red."

Giant Jellyfish Discovery

An enormous and new species of jellyfish was discovered in early 1998 in the eastern Pacific. It was named Chrysaora achlyos from the Greek 'achlys' meaning mist, darkness and obscurity - a clever reference to its dark coloration and rare appearance. The subject had a smooth, purple/black coloured bell and light pink tentacles stretching 20ft.

The jellyfish had previously been reported in large numbers off southern California and Mexico during 1989. It is thought to have arrived there from the south, approaching along the outer coast of the Baja California peninsula.

It has actually appeared on two occasions at least this century with photographs either unlabelled or incorrectly identified published in 1926 and 1965. It hadn't been seen since 1989 though, and this is the first occasion it has been considered a new species to science.

ed. forgot url

[edit on 7-12-2005 by soficrow]

another fascinating thread

I hate jellyfish btw, I was stung by one as a child while in the water and not too long ago, I stepped on the body of one buried under the sand. OUCH!!!!! and they were no where close to the size of those monsters. I would be extremely terrified of ever getting into the water if jellyfish the size of those pictured above were lurking off my coastline.

Perhaps the explanation of the lack of predators is the best reasoning for why they are growing in size... Either we're overfishing or they are naturally dying off due to ocean changes and can't keep up with jellyfish population.

My wife and i had our Honeymoon in Malta this year and, while we was there, we couldn’t help noticing the huge amount of Jelly Fish in the sea.

While on a dive we asked our dive leader why there are so many Jellyfish and he said that the turtle (which is the natural predator to the Jellyfish) has been almost wiped out by poachers, combine this with the warmer temperatures, and you have perfect Jellyfish environment.

Made sense to me

I was walking on the beach in the Philippines when I was there, and there were a lot of little jellyfish that were laying there in the sand. Jellyfish are cool.