Huge swarms of stinging jellyfish and similar
slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the
Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, U.S. 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
U.S. 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
http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp, says the
Black Sea's fishing and tourism industries have lost $350 million
because of a proliferation of comb jelly fish.
The report says more than 1,000 fist-sized comb jellies can be found
in a cubic yard (meter) of Black Sea water during a bloom.
They 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 38,600 square miles (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.
slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the
Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, U.S. 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
U.S. 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
http://www.nsf.
Black Sea's fishing and tourism industries have lost $350 million
because of a proliferation of comb jelly fish.
The report says more than 1,000 fist-sized comb jellies can be found
in a cubic yard (meter) of Black Sea water during a bloom.
They 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 38,600 square miles (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.
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