Giant Jellyfish sink boat.

[The Bigfella]

I think the whales have started to fight back against the Japanese... they've sent in the first wave of attack troops.....

GIANT jellyfish have sunk a 10-tonne trawler in Japan.
The Nomura's jellyfish can weigh up to 200kg each and have recently begun to swarm in the waters off the coast of China.

Unfortunately for the three-man crew of the Diasan Shinsho-maru, their net dragged through such a swarm, capturing dozens of the jellyfish, which can grow up to two metres in diameter.

The three men were thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized and sank under the weight of the jellyfish, according to UK tabloid The Telegraph.

The swarm has come as a surprise to local fisherman, who reported none in 2008.

Self-described "jellyologist" Monty Graham, from the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, said the Nomura's jellyfish swarm in order to breed.

The last spikes in Nomura's jellyfish populations occurred in 1958 and 1995, according to LiveScience.

[TimH]

nasty things.

Ill take whales over jellyfish any day.

[rufustr]

It's OK .

The Japanese will eat them as well.

"In the meantime locals are making the best of it — rather than just complaining about jellyfish they are eating them.
Jellyfish are an unusual ingredient of Japanese cuisine but are much more prized in China. Coastal communities are doing their best to promote jellyfish as a novelty food, sold dried and salted.
Students in Obama have managed to turn them into tofu, and jellyfish collagen is reported to be beneficial to the skin."


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...icle749446.ece

[The Bigfella]

Yeah, I've eaten Jellyfish at a Chinese banquet (in Oz, but with visiting Chinese politicians and academics). The whole deal was to get as much variety in texture, colour and taste, as I understand it.

[Scot L T]

Well, I'm kind of a self styled "Jellyologist" myself. I'm partial to making and consuming Red Plum Jelly, Orange and Ginger Jelly, the occasional Strawberry Jelly...oh sorry, wrong jelly.

My wife is of chinese desent and we often have jellyfish at her family banquets. It's an acquired texture I'd have to say. There doesn't seem to be much taste other that what the chef adds but the texture is....interesting. I'd actually like to see them go on to the "Endangered Species" list so they would no longer be served at our banquets...good luck with that one!

I would imagine those fellows were suitably terrified until plucked from the sea by the other trawler. The small ones around the Pacific North West garner my respect and a wide berth.

[John B]

This is what Jim is talking about. ....the end is nigh.......

[skuthorp]

We get thousands of these

every summer. The stingers are on the arms. Fortunately they have no effect on me other than to give me a fright when I swim through a patch. Many are not so fortunate and swell up and itch.

[RFNK]

Well, take out most of the world's pelagic feeders and turtles and you get a blowout in squid and jellyfish. The larger populations of squid and jellyfish then take out even more of the juvenile pelagics ..... We reap what we sow. Rick

[shamus]

A long time ago when I was deckhanding on a cray boat, there was a sudden influx of white hollow cylindrical animals about 8 or 9 inches long that noone had seen before. They were pretty thick for about a week, and caught on the pot lines, bent in half with the current and submerged the buoys. We called them cucumbers, but never found out what they were.

[PeterSibley]

Hers's a link link to an ABC Catalyst story on the jelly fish explosion.
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2721180.htm

[JimD]

Hmmmm, yummy.

[George.]

Well, I guess things are not as bad as I thought. At least one wild fishery will be thriving in the future. I hope the Brits can adapt to jellyfish and chips - fired in soy oil, of course.

[Lew Barrett]

I've eaten it too. An acquired taste. All told, I prefer salmon, and by a considerable margin.

[Captain Blight]

I'll eat almost anything from pickled and smoked human feet to sheep's eyeballs to acorn flour to homemade tofu. But it'd need to be a pretty hefty bet for me to eat jellyfish.

[boylesboats]

I'll eat almost anything from pickled and smoked human feet to sheep's eyeballs to acorn flour to homemade tofu. But it'd need to be a pretty hefty bet for me to eat jellyfish.

pickled and smoked human feet

So that explain why those "missin' feet/another foot found threads" came about

[boylesboats]

Wouldn't that be un-enjoyable experience gettin' tangled up in all those tentacles

[George.]

This is funny, but it is also tragic. Look at the Yellow Sea on Google Earth. There is a scary fluorescent green blob spreading over most of it. And before any Western roundeyes get smug, the Med is also becoming infested by jellyfish, and Guanabara Bay is one huge sewage tank.

Humans don't deserve the seas. We are turning them into cesspools.

[The549]

Can it be made crispy?

[Russ Manheimer]

A dramatic increase of Sea Nettles jellyfish (Chrysaora quinquecirrha) has made swiming in Barnegat Bay a risky proposition. Most of the blame is on nitrogen loading from watershed over-development. I can't remember the last time I swam in the Bay. Sad.

Russ

[Captain Blight]

This is funny, but it is also tragic. Look at the Yellow Sea on Google Earth. There is a scary fluorescent green blob spreading over most of it. And before any Western roundeyes get smug, the Med is also becoming infested by jellyfish, and Guanabara Bay is one huge sewage tank.

Humans don't deserve the seas. We are turning them into cesspools.

Thanks for this.


Jellyfish are frickin' weird. They really ride that line between plants and animals. In a lot of ways they're more like plants than animals, but then, there are jellyfish that have eyes... but no brains.

I find it difficult to believe there is life on other planets that's any more alien than what lives in the oceans.

[John Turpin]

Can it be made crispy?

Exactly. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Peanut butter and Jellyfish sandwich.

[Paul Denison]

When you bite into it, ...well just think of chewing bubble wrap. Once it gets cold, I can't eat it.

[boylesboats]

When you bite into it, ...well just think of chewing bubble wrap. Once it gets cold, I can't eat it.

Hummmmm..... would the giant jellyfish bell makes a good umbrella?

[SamSam]

Exactly. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Peanut butter and Jellyfish sandwich.

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt.

[Candyfloss]

Of course the word "overfishing" does not appear anywhere in that whole "scientific" examination of this problem. Just not a P.C. word in Japan.

[The Bigfella]

Maybe if the rest of the world tells Japan they don't want them to catch jellyfish they'll target them and leave the whales alone for a while?

[RFNK]

Japanese and Norwegian whaling stinks but it's overfishing of tuna, mackeral, sailfish, marlin and turtles - swordfish are all gone now aren't they?, and increasing levels of nutrients being poured into the oceans, that are causing the explosion in populations of squid and jellyfish, it seems. Rick

[WillW]

Also, jellyfish are the prime part of the diet of sea turtles. Unfortunately, floating plastic bags resemble jellyfish quite a bit - sea turtles eat them and become impacted. Fewer sea turtles = more jellyfish.