Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish

Ian David

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Mon Nov-02-09 02:50 PM
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Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish

Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish
A 10-ton fishing boat has been sunk by gigantic jellyfish off eastern Japan.

The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba`as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish.

Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months.

The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

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Experts believe that one contributing factor to the jellyfish becoming more frequent visitors to Japanese waters may be a decline in the number of predators, which include sea turtles and certain species of fish.

More:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/6483758/Japanese-fishing-trawler-sunk-by-giant-jellyfish.html

See also:

Jellyfish Invasion

Between massive swarms and habitat invasions, jellyfish are changing ecosystems, stinging beachgoers, and causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage. Using high-tech underwater gadgets, scientists are racing to understand one of the most common, mysterious—and destructive—sea creatures

Bad Catch: Increasing numbers of fishermen’s nets are filling with jellyfish, which slime, poison, and crush the intended catch. Asahi Shimbun

For most of us, jellyfish are nothing more than a nuisance. They drift toward beach shores and into our consciousness each summer near the end of their life cycle, making a refreshing dip in the water a bit less carefree for a few weeks. But that may be changing.

Last November, a 10-mile-wide and 42-foot-thick swarm of baby mauve stingers (Pelagia noctiluca) decimated Northern Ireland’s farmed-salmon population. Overnight,120,000 fish were reduced to a floating mass of carcasses by billions of the small jellies native to warmer waters thousands of miles to the south. The salmon, which were killed by stings and oxygen deprivation, had a market value of $2 million.

Since 1996, massive “blooms” of mauve stingers have also plagued Mediterranean beachgoers. In previous decades, the jellies showed up along the French Riviera every 10 to 12 years and remained for about four years before retreating. But that pattern changed in the 1990s as the time span between the infestations shortened and jelly numbers shot up. In 1996, the Mediterranean coast experienced its largest blooms ever. The jellies retreated in 1998 but returned in even greater numbers just five years later. In August 2006, 60 million jellyfish reportedly swept up on Spanish beaches and stung more than 70,000 people, causing swollen limbs and allergic reactions. Beaches were closed throughout the entire region.

Europe’s mauve stingers aren’t the only jellies wreaking havoc. From the U.S. to Japan to Australia and beyond, several species of jellyfish—and their gelatinous cousins that are often mistaken for jellies—are expanding their numbers at a rapid pace and moving into foreign waters. Far from a simple nuisance, the creatures are dramatically changing marine ecosystems, costing commercial fisheries millions of dollars, and invading tourist destinations. Notoriously understudied, jellyfish are now attracting growing scientific attention.

More:
http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2008-06/jellyfish-invasion