Monday, August 04, 2008

Jellyfish and ocean decline

Jellyfish are booming in oceans all over the world, thanks to people messing things up. Now jellyfish swarms are a problem every day on some beaches. According to jellyfish expert Dr. Josep-María Gili “These jellyfish near shore are a message the sea is sending us saying, ‘Look how badly you are treating me.’”

According to the New York Times,

Within the past year, there have been beach closings because of jellyfish swarms on the Côte d’Azur in France, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and at Waikiki and Virginia Beach in the United States.
“Human-caused stresses, including global warming and overfishing, are encouraging jellyfish surpluses in many tourist destinations and productive fisheries,” according to the National Science Foundation
Some authorities have responded by posting jellyfish warning flags and deploying boats to scoop jellyfish out of the water. How about fixing our ocean problems, by reducing pollution and getting serious about stopping climate change?

Or...we can just get used to jellyfish and the faint of heart can go to Vegas Beach .

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What is the evidence that the observed jellyfish increases have more to do with pollution and climate change than the impacts of fishing? I thought the latter were implicated, but the proposed solutions include only addressing pollution and climate change.