Blog Post #1: Overpopulation of Jellyfish

The Overpopulation of Jellyfish

Jellyfish overpopulation is becoming a crisis and effects many parts of the world in a negative way; it causes shut downs of nuclear power plants, stings people on vacation beaches because it's washed up onto shore, and destroys fisheries.

Japanese fishermen try to haul up fish but end up with large amounts of jellyfish and ripped nets. AP Photo/Junji Kurokawa

Why is there all of a sudden an overpopulation of jellyfish? It's because of us. We make the temperature of the water perfectly fit for jellyfish because of undersea constructions and human-caused warming,also well known as a worldwide issue, global warming.

Examples of undersea constructions would be oil rigs, gas rigs, and harbors. Jellyfish use these offshore platforms as nesting grounds in order to live. I am not saying that we should get rid of these platforms because we obviously need oil rigs to fill our cars and other necessities, but maybe find solutions to move them somewhere else. It's because of these platforms and warm temperatures that many types of jellyfish tend to migrate and overpopulate those areas.

According to spigotsciencemag, "When air or water pollution causes ocean changes, the plankton population increases." (Cochran 2011) If the plankton population increases, more jellyfish will migrate to that area because that is mainly what they eat.

One of the main and most crucial problems with overpopulation of jellyfish is the clogging of nuclear pipes. The moon jellyfish is the culprit for clogging up one of the largest plants in the world, The Stockholm's Oskarshamn plant located in Sweden, and what makes things worse is that they're able to migrate and adapt to extreme conditions whether there are no fish in the sea to eat, there's algae all over the water, or basically just bad pollution. And this isn't the only time that jellyfish have clogged pipes; it happened in Diablo Canyon inCalifornia, Eastern parts of US, Northern Ireland, The Black Sea,Japan, and other areas of the world. Because of the tragedy in Sweden, the nation lost 5% of its power supply until the pipes were fully cleaned. People nowadays can barely survive a day without their phone, imagine losing your phone, computer, and light for a few days!

Parts of the world where Jellyfish have spread and harmed. Designed by iDROBUX from The Noun Project, Ritchi King | Quartz | qz.com

Jellyfish washes up onto the sand of beaches. I saw many dead jellyfish buried in the sand of Ocean Beach, CA where the fog and water is freezing. Knowing that jellyfish love warm waters, now you can visualize how much worse it would be in other beaches such as Florida or Australia, beautiful beaches with tourists all over.

In Daytona Beach, Florida, a swarm of box jellyfish stung around 200 people. According to Ange lYanagihara, a professor in tropical medicine at the University of Hawaii, she says that there have been more deaths due to jellyfish compared to sharks.

In the summer of 2013, there were millions of jellyfish sprawled across the coastline of the Mediterranean which prevented tourists from getting in the water or even on the beach. And each summer, 150,000 people are treated for jellyfish stings in this area.

Jellyfish also causes the death of many fish which in turn makes it worse for fishermen. The comb jellyfish in the Black Sea killed a $350 million fishing industry. The mauve stinger jellyfish killed 100,000 salmon on Northern Ireland's only salmon farm. A 10 ton boat in japan was tipped over on its side when it tried hauling up a net full of Nomura jellyfish. Do you see how harmful these animals can be? And can you see the problems we can face because of the overpopulation of jellyfish?

References

Brougher, Jessie. "Jellyfish of the Florida Keys and Bahamas." JRscience, 15 May 2009. Web. 15 February 2014.

Guilford, Gwynn. “Jellyfish are taking over the seas, and it might be too late to stop them.” Quartz, 15 October 2013. Web. 15 February 2014.

Kurokawa, Junji. Jellyfish invading fishermen sites. Photograph. n.d. Jellyfish are taking over the seas, and it might be too late to stop them. qz.web. 15 February 2014. <http://qz.com/133251/jellyfish-are-taking-over-the-seas-and-it-might-be-too-late-to-stop-them/>

Kurokawa, Junji. Jellyfish statistics. Photograph. n.d. Jellyfish are taking over the seas, and it might be too late to stop them. qz.web. 15 February 2014. <http://qz.com/133251/jellyfish-are-taking-over-the-seas-and-it-might-be-too-late-to-stop-them/>

Merchant, Brian. "Jellyfish are clogging up nuclear power plants around the world." Motherboard.vice, n.d. Web. 14 February 2014.

O'Mara, Kelly. "Jellyfish are wreaking havoc on tourist areas." travel.yahoo, 24 October 2013. Web. 15 February 2014.

Subbaraman, Nidhi. "The jellyfish are coming! Experts tangle with exploding population." NBCnews, 7 October. Web. 15 February 2014.