Jellyfish on the rise: UBC study
Jellyfish are increasing in the majority of the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to the first global study of jellyfish abundance by University of British Columbia researchers.
In a study published in this month’s edition of the journal Hydrobiologia, UBC scientists examined data for numerous species of jellyfish for 45 of the world’s 66 Large Marine Ecosystems. They found increasing jellyfish populations in 62 per cent of the regions analyzed, including East Asia, the Black Sea, the Mediterranean, the Northeast U.S. Shelf, Hawaii, and Antarctica.
“There has been anecdotal evidence that jellyfish were on the rise in recent decades, but there hasn’t been a global study that gathered together all the existing data until now,” says Lucas Brotz, a PhD student with the Sea Around Us Project at UBC and lead author of the study.
“Our study confirms these observations scientifically after analysis of available information from 1950 to the present for more than 138 different jellyfish populations around the world.”
Jellyfish directly interfere with many human activities – by stinging swimmers, clogging intakes of power plants, and interfering with fishing. Some species of jellyfish are now a food source in some parts of the world.
“By combining published scientific data with other unpublished data and observations, we could make this study truly global – and offer the best available scientific estimate of a phenomenon that has been widely discussed,” says Daniel Pauly, principal investigator of the Sea Around Us Project and co-author of the study. “We can also see that the places where we see rising numbers of jellyfish are often areas heavily impacted by humans, through pollution, overfishing, and warming waters.”
Pauly adds that increasing anecdotal reports of jellyfish abundance may have resulted from an expansion of human activities in marine habitats, so the study also provides a concrete baseline for future studies.
The study also notes decreases in jellyfish abundance in seven per cent of coastal regions, while the remainder of the marine ecosystems showed no obvious trend.
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Next we’ll see the “jellyfish channel” on cable to complement the “Weather Channel”, so we can learn immediate of the latest outbreak, complete with Jellyfish watches and warnings, followed by a jellyfish reporting app for the iPhone. We’ll have wikipedia entries for “super outbreaks”.
Coastal TV stations will feature the J9000 – Super Jelly Doppler Live Tracker.
As I’ve said many times before, reporting bias is not a real trend.
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I don’t know where else to post this, but I ran across a new environmental plea/contest today from the Smithsonian at http://www.smithmag.net/planet/
My entry was “faux outrage over a nonexistant problem”
Other possibilities I considered were “Climate change, 4.7 billion years later” and “CO2 is not an atmospheric pollutant”
Response to:
SebShaw says:
April 19, 2012 at 8:57 am
I think we should believe this previous Aussie study, since they suffer the most box jellyfish attacks. Also, they call themselves JEDI, so how can we not believe them?
[JEDI = Jellyfish Database Initiative]
Thanks, Shaw!
…some people need to step back and look at how big the ocean really is
@rgbatduke
There may also be some cyclic component, as an avid NC surf fisherman for many years, I can recall in the mid to late 80’s seeing tons of jellyfish, not so many in the 90’s and early 2000’s and a recent increase (recovery) over the last few years. Perhaps it’s merely an an example of the predator prey boom/bust cycle like the classic hawk & hare example : hare population increase allows hawk population to increase, which decreases hare population, which can no longer support the hawk population so it decreases, allowing the hare population to increase, which allows the hawk population to increase, which decreases ……… and on and on.
The way these guys attribute everything to global warming is sickening.
http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202024308/research/jedi-scientists-repel-jellyfish-invasion
JEDI says differently.
I took a quick search, but couldn’t find the research directly; too much eco-absurd showing up in the searches.
Biologists have studied some of the reasons fish populations go through boom-bust cycles. One of the things they noticed was that the total oceanic biomass in a region stays relatively constant. One sealife population going through a bust cycle enables or frees up space and nutrients for other sea-life.
In terms of the oceanic food chain structure; Biologists believe the majority of sea biomass are the microscopic life. Sea critters that consume the micro-critters feed larger critters and so on.
Heavy commercial catches of oceanic life, especially those that eat the micro and smaller critters allow population explosions and the sea critters that can fill that void, do. Harvest huge quantities of squid, herring, anchovies, menhaden, mullet, sardines, shrimp, krill, other crustaceans and whatnot and we leave a huge void for the less delectable fish life; jellyfish.
Pollution and warming have almost nothing to do with it. As mentioned several times before, endangered sea turtles, especially the loggerheads are one of the few known jellyfish predators.
What may be needed is some research shoing the value of turning jellyfish into something useful and then to harvest jellyfish commercially.
And the average is close to the mean. /sarc
atheok says:
April 19, 2012 at 10:47 am
“…What may be needed is some research shoing the value of turning jellyfish into something useful and then to harvest jellyfish commercially.”
_______________________
and the headlines shortly after commercialization would read:
“Jellyfish threatened by Man Made Global Warming.”
You just aren’t feeling guilty enough yet, to realize that it’ll always be your fault and you must be made to pay the price.
This is because global warming is good for bad things and bad for good things.
Good = polar bear cubs, seals, salmon, finches, strawberries
Bad things = mosquitoes, spiders, jelly fish, anthrax
In support of the other posters re sea turtles: here in the southern Mediterranean there has been an increase in jellyfish over the past five years. The authorities say it’s due to the killing of sea turtles by fishermen in neighboring countries.
“What jellyfish and tornadoes have in common”
Did anyone else get this picture of jelly fish being sucked up by a tornado/waterspout and hurled around like an apocalyptic custard pie fight. People running from flying jelly fish. I have to go off and write the comedy horror movie script right now. Thanks WUWT
P.S. Did you know that if you jump on a dead jelly fish you bounce off and fall on your ass? Please don’t ask how I know that. Tough rubbery critters.
“Predator” Corals Eat Jellyfish
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/photogalleries/coral-eats-jellyfish-first-pictures/
“But jellyfish also have a number of other natural enemies that like to eat them. These predators include tunas, sharks, swordfish and some species of salmon.”
http://www.whateats.com/what-eats-jellyfish
“Some of the most common and important jellyfish predators include tuna, shark, swordfish, and at least one species of Pacific salmon, as well as sea turtles,Strangely enough, some of the predators of jellyfish include jellyfish of other species., sea birds prey upon crabs and invariable end up feeding upon the host jellyfish as well.
http://www.jellyfishfacts.net/jellyfish-predators.html#ixzz1sWVJyGmo
“The common mola typically eats jellyfish, squid, and small fish”
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-sunfish.htm
crabs, squid, lobster, starfish, shrimp, etc etc all eat jellyfish……………..
this post will be in moderation hell for a while…………….LOL
Can someone say Trophic Cascade. Not sure if top down or bottom up.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1669736/trophic-cascade
I have lived in in Sarasota Fl now for over 1 3/4 years, and visited here several times before moving here, I get to the beach as often as I can, which is at least once a week, I have seen only 2 dead jellyfish in that time. I remember reading an article that wondered if the lack of jellyfish could have something to do with global warming or another human cause. No mater what happens to anything, we are to blame.
I think I’ll apply for a grant to count piles of jellyfish bones ….
This doesn’t add to the science, or lack of, in this article and posting, but here’s a personal experience re jellyfish. Enjoy the imagery.
On a purse seiner fishing boat (e.g. netting salmon), the net is closed off, then pulled up through a motorized block (pulley). Two men grab the incoming net and lay it back out on the stern deck. Simple enough, but one minor problem: tons of jelly fish are captured on the net and squished as they go through the block. The screaming is horrific as these poor things are rendered into mush. Jellyfish slime justs oozes all down the net and all over the two men. Goggles and head-to-toe rubberized clothing does not completely stop one from getting stings… and let me tell you about getting jellyfish in the eyes, especially when you wear contact lenses. Oh, and there is the lovely fragrant aroma from the net as it dries – Magnifique!
PS: before I get in trouble with PETA, I should note that the screams are from the fishermen.
If there are so many of these blighters, they will be easily harvested by the thousands of tons. Fertilizer or food let us use them whilst abundant. I have seen plagues of insects and plagues of rabbits and mice and rats and we did not seize the opportunity. Let us not waste this one, perhaps it will prove a simple process to convert them into diesel fuel, that would be a win win.
Though the greens may be offended and to stop the process would try to get them classified as an endangered species.
Any creature that goes through so many stages of metamorphosis in one lifetime, and has been in the fossil record since the Cambrian Era, deserves a little more respect than this. (There are even some adult medusae which fission into two adults.) Now these obsessive-compulsive micromanagers are writing hit pieces on the earth’s most venerable and aged life forms.
What jellyfish and tornadoes have in common
They’re both attracted to trailer parks?