Giant Jellyfish

[surfergirl]

This article is old news by one month,

 these giant creatures are inhabiting the shores of Korea & Japan..

scientists say they are large in numbers because of global warming.

These creatures make it impossible for fisherman to get a decent feed of fish.

      The giant jellyfish invasion mystery As jellyfish ‘blooms’ become common, scientists are divided about what’s happening. How it’s resolved will affect anyone with a stake in the marine world.

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TSUSHIMA ISLAND, JAPAN—The gelatinous masses on the deck of the Myoho-maru could charitably be described as the colour of weak tea. They quivered as the boat pitched in the choppy morning waves. The blobs had been pulled in from the sea along with an octopus, a clutch of squid and a thousand frantically flopping finfish, the day’s intended catch.

Yoshifumi Sakumoto, the fisherman who captains the Myoho-maru, accidentally stepped on the jelly mess and skidded before regaining his balance.

But underfoot, the blobs were not nearly as troublesome as underwater and intact. They were pieces of Nemopilema nomurai, the giant jellyfish that in recent years have swarmed Japan’s seas with alarming frequency, decimating fisheries and damaging the country’s marine economy.

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In the last century, Nomura “blooms,” as dramatic jellyfish aggregations are called, were recorded just three times: in 1920, 1958 and 1995. Then, starting in 2002, blooms hit six times in eight years. In 2009, the last and worst bloom year, a Japanese fishing trawler capsized trying to pull a net full of Nomura, which can grow to the size of a Smart car.