Jelly Fish Invasion - June 2009 - With Photos!!, page 1

its not only in malta....

www.cbc.ca...

As similar blooms crop up around the world, scientists are forced to wonder: is man somehow responsible?

Also scientists are questioning so I think yes its indicating something is hapenning to our sea

Unfortunately this pattern of Jellyfish influx shall continue growing increasingly until nature is restored. One of the main predators of jellyfish are sea turtles. Mankind is causing the growing genocide of sea turtles by 3 factors.

1. Building along the world's coasts disrupts their nesting grounds.
2. Mankind’s chemical pollutants which affects all sea life.
3. Garbage.

I will not touch on the first 2 but I will elaborate on the third, garbage. Underwater, plastic bags look like a jellyfish. Sea turtle eats plastic bag. Plastic bag does not break down in the stomach. Sea turtle thinks it's full when it is actually starving itself to death.

I cringed when I saw portion control or individual serving sizes becoming main stream. That alone has created an astronomical influx of excess plastic and cellophane trash which ends up in our landfills or floating at sea worldwide.

We still have idiots that continue to dump garbage at sea just for convenience!
Caribbean cruise ships dump garbage at sea

Miles from shore in the open Caribbean Sea, cruise ships are dumping ground-up glass, rags and cardboard packaging. But vessels in other waters such as the Baltic and North seas are prohibited from throwing any solid waste overboard other than food scraps.

The difference? Many countries with coastlines on the world's most fragile seas abide by a United Nations dumping ban that requires them to treat ship-generated garbage on land. Caribbean islands, however, have yet to adopt the ban, saying they simply don't have the capacity to treat ship garbage on shore. They also fear the ban could push ships to dock in less-regulated ports of call.

Have any of you heard of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch yet?
Landfill in the Sea

If by chance you are missing a basketball, you may be glad to know that it has been found in the Pacific Ocean.

It was there along with giant tangles of rope, sunken snack-food bags, a plastic six-pack ring and thousands upon thousands of plastic bags, billowing under the ocean surface like jellyfish.

And that's not all.

There is a floating garbage dump about the size of Africa created by Pacific currents now carrying refuse from North America, Asia and the islands, concentrating it into a swirl of flotsam estimated to contain 3.5 million tons of junk, 80 percent of which is plastic.

Here is a picture of what a plastic bag can look like in the sea. Can you blame sea turtles for mistaking this as a jellyfish?



There are a few things my family does to minimize our footprint on the earth. I keep a few re-usable shopping bags in my car at all times. This way I never need a plastic or paper bag. I no longer buy those zip lock type baggies. I bought a set of plastic containers of various sizes and have used them solely for leftovers, lunches, etc for the last 3 years. It is about time to replace that set but I have reduced the amount of plastic I "dump". I avoid buying individual package serving sized anything. I buy the big box and portion them out in my container set. This saves a large amount of cellophane over any length of time. Above all, RECYCLE!

These are just a few easy changes I would suggest all of us to implement. Imagine the amount of plastic garbage we not have if everyone including manufacturers ceased the individual serving sizes.

I am now stepping down off my soap-box.

Peace all.

[edit on 6/9/2009 by Amaxium]

reply to post by Amaxium

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Here is a picture of what a plastic bag can look like in the sea. Can you blame sea turtles for mistaking this as a jellyfish? --- ooo that made me so sad

Giant jellyfish are taking over parts of the world's oceans due to overfishing and other human activities, researchers say.

Nomura jellyfish are the biggest in the world and can grow as big as a sumo wrestler. They weigh up to 200 kilograms and can reach 2 metres in diameter.

Dr Anthony Richardson and his colleagues from CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research says jellyfish numbers are increasing, particularly in South East Asia, the Black Sea, the Gulf of Mexico and the North Sea.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

story

A perfect example of removing one species from a ecosystem (fish) and having another species (jellyfish) benefit.

Just like everywhere, the ocean has its own checks and balance system. Without fish the jellyfish populations will explode. Eventually the jellyfish will die out because there will be too many of them, and they will have exploited their food source.

The simple solution would be to curb commercial fishing, but that is easier said then done.

reply to post by heineken

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Depends. By "we" do you mean humans, or do you mean "life"?

Humans are pretty much guaranteed to be screwed. We're the last skinny twig on an otherwise extinct family tree, we have next to no meaningful genetic diversity, and as travel increases, that diversity only dwindles. Top it off with what we're doing to our environment, and it's pretty safe to say we probably have, maybe 20,000 years left in us, tops, possibly less depending on our own actions.

As for life... Life is fine. We have this cute conceit that says only attractive vertebrates constitute "life", but obviously the jellyfish are doing fine, and i'll bet you out in that gigantic sea dump, we're seeing bacteria, protists, and other critters colonizing the plastic and converting the hydrocarbons to energy, just like they do at sea vents.

Just another extinction event, nothing for life to get too worked up about. Sucks for us, though.

I love your beautiful Island and I hope the jelly fish are gone by the time I go there in early August.We are staying with my relative who has a house in zebbug.I was there last year. www.youtube.com... See you in the square for a cisk or two.

Originally posted by tarifa37
I love your beautiful Island and I hope the jelly fish are gone by the time I go there in early August.We are staying with my relative who has a house in zebbug.I was there last year. www.youtube.com... See you in the square for a cisk or two.

wow thats nice....the cisk hahahaha..its more famouse than the woman here...i choose heineken as a name but i drink cisk lager because i thought no one would understand the cisk thing...you know what..i must be ashamed i will try to change my name if possible and also the avatar when i have the chance

10q m8

TWO deadly species of marine stingers could appear off New South Wales beaches as the world's oceans become dominated by jellyfish, an Australian scientist has warned.

Box jellyfish, the most lethal of all jellyfish, and the tiny but potent irukandji jellyfish will be pushed down the coast from Queensland by a strengthening east Australian current, Dr Anthony Richardson said yesterday.

Dr Richardson, from the CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric division, has just finished a study with international colleagues into the rising jellyfish populations. In some parts of the world, jellyfish have overtaken fish as the main marine creature.

The researchers found human activities - over-fishing, nutrient run-off and climate change - were the main reasons for the jellyfish increase.

"Small pelagic fish like sardines and pilchards are being fished out in many places and they eat plankton, which is partly made up of juvenile jellyfish," Dr Richardson said.

"Nutrient run-off on land causes phytoplankton blooms which produce water with low oxygen which jellyfish can survive but fish can't.

www.news.com.au...

reply to post by ocker

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omg...holy #...but is there anything we can do?..i mean look at that its huge

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