UK Scientist - "In 20 Years' Time, We May Be Looking At Jellyfish & Chips, Rather Than Fish & Chips"

[hatrack]

EDIT

Last November a jellyfish invasion wiped out Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, killing more than 100,000 fish. Millions of small jellyfish, known as mauve stingers, flooded into the cages about a mile into the Irish Sea, off Glenarm Bay and Cushendun. The jellyfish covered an area of up to 10 square miles, with a depth of 35 feet, and although rescuers tried to reach the cages, the density of fish made it impossible. The fish farm's managing director, John Russell, said that he had never seen anything like it in 30 years in the business. "The sea was red with these jellyfish and there was nothing we could do about it, absolutely nothing," he said. Earlier in the summer, beachgoers in Cornwall and Dorset were warned to look out for the highly poisonous Portuguese man-of-war jellyfish.

Professor Graeme Hays, the head of Environmental and Molecular Biosciences at Swansea University, is leading the project. He is an expert on sea turtles, which hunt jellyfish as their principal prey. "There is actually very little known about jellyfish despite the fact that jellyfish blooms may be increasing because of overfishing and climate change, which could have huge socio-economic impacts," he said. Overfishing in particular allowed jellyfish to get a hold in an ecosystem and take it over, he said. This had been seen off the coast of Namibia and in the Black Sea, where fisheries had collapsed as jellyfish became more numerous than the fish themselves.

"This is a serious threat," Professor Hays said. "In 20 years' time we may be looking at jellyfish and chips, rather than fish and chips." The threat to swimmers was also growing. The stings of some species of jellyfish found in British waters, such as those of the lion's mane jellyfish, were capable of causing death. The project would allow a broad-scale assessment of the role of jellyfish in the Irish Sea ecosystem, he added.

Professor Hays and his Irish counterpart, Professor Tom Doyle, will attach data loggers – small devices which record information such as water temperature and depth – to the biggest species that is found in British waters, the barrel jellyfish, which can measure three feet across.

EDIT

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/jellyfish-invasion-britain-to-fight-them-on-the-beaches-900647.html

[phantom power]

1. I wonder if Professor Hays reads E/E.

Because we totally thought of that first.

[dipsydoodle]

2. I got stitched by jellyfish

when I was about 10 years old and trust me it ain't funny. It's like having needles stuck in your muscles from the inside out.

Jellyfish and chips ........:puke:

Hopefully there will always be a plaice for us......lol.