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December 16, 2008
Jellyfish are taking over
I don’t usually see many jellyfish here in Charleston unless I’m on Folly Beach. They don’t seem to go on the inter-coastal waterway or even up the Wando River, although I do see them out on Capers all the time.
Fortunately, this is South Carolina, not some of the locations listed below.
- 1/3 of the total weight of all life in Monterey Bay is from gelatinous animals.
- 3 minutes after a person is stung by a deadly box jellyfish, s/he may be dead.
- 8 years after fast-reproducing comb jellies invaded in the Black Sea, they dominated it.
- 20 to 40 people are killed annually from box jellyfish stings in the Philippines alone.
- 100 foot-long tentacles may dangle from the Lion’s Mane Jelly.
- 400 vast Dead Zones in world oceans are too polluted for almost all life except jellyfish.
- 1,000+ fist-sized comb jellies filled each cubic meter of water in Black Sea jelly blooms.
- 45,000 eggs may be released daily by a single jellyfish.
- 500,000 people are stung by jellyfish in the Chesapeake Bay annually.
- 500 million refrigerator-sized jellyfish float into the Sea of Japan daily during blooms.
According to the NSF, in some places, the water is so polluted that jellyfish are the only marine life able to survive. It’s ability to adapt and overcome adversity is just like another South Carolina favorite: kudzu.
Hopefully AgroGas will have better luck with this pesky creature, who like jellyfish, seem to repopulate like a bunch of guppies.
And speaking of jellyfish, check out this giant sucker! That thing would freak me out if I saw it in the water!
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What do you think about that?
