New Jellyfish Research Links Problems To Pollution, Warming

Every year for a few years now, I’ve been writing about the increasing problem with jellyfish. Jellyfish swarms are bursting out in ever-larger numbers, more frequently. On tourist beaches, they’re stinging more people. In fisheries, they’re busting nets and rendering fish inedible to humans.

Swarms of huge jellyfish are back this year again along the shores of Japan in such numbers that they can cause fishing boats to capsize when they’re caught in nets.

These jellyfish used to appear only once every two human generations, but now, they’re around almost every other year. According to studies by scientists Jennifer Purcell and Shin-ichi Uye, the increasing populations of jellyfish are caused by combination of local increases in pollution and globally, the increase of ocean temperatures that’s coming along with global climate change.

The next time you hear someone deny that climate change is real, or that it’s affecting people in a negative way, tell them about the fisheries in japan, where the giant jellyfish are causing many fishermen to not even bother putting out to sea anymore.