According to a recent report from the National Science Foundation, it's time for us to figure out exactly what might be going on with these slimy-bodied invertebrates:

In recent years, massive blooms of stinging jellyfish and jellyfish-like creatures have overrun some of the world’s most important fisheries and tourist destinations—even transforming large swaths of them into veritable jellytoriums. The result: injuries (sometimes serious) to water enthusiasts and even occasional deaths.

Jellyfish swarms have also damaged fisheries, fish farms, seabed mining operations, desalination plants and large ships. And proving that jellyfish can be political animals, knots of jellyfish have done the work of anti-nuclear activists: they have disabled nuclear power plants by clogging intake pipes.

In short, since the 1980s, worldwide jellyfish blooms have caused hundreds of millions—or perhaps even billions—of dollars in losses. Worldwide reports of massive jellyfish blooms are triggering speculation that jellyfish swarms are increasing because of human activities. But are they?

The report presents a swarm locations map, showing areas where scientists or journalists have identified sharp rises in the number of jellyfish present. That list includes Australia, the Mediterranean, Chesapeake Bay, the Gulf Coast, the Bering Sea, Hawaii, the Black Sea, the waters around Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and even the coast of Namibia. NSF claims that environmental stress is to blame for these swarms, so we can add "giant jelly armies" to the list of disasters caused by global climate change.

The important question is: How much of this happens to be our fault? In a chart of all possible stresses that might affect our gloopy sea neighbors, the report pinpoints these five: invasions of non-native jellyfish, pollution, climate change, over-harvesting of fish, and dams. Humans are to blame for at least four of these. Whoops.

To make up for the havoc we may have wreaked on the ecosystem of these jellies (and to avoid getting Irukandji syndrome from a venemous horde of Australian box jellyfish, say), humans must get a handle on the causes of and solutions to this abnormal swarm activity. This NSF report is a good start.

Special Report: Jellyfish Gone Wild [National Science Foundation]

Pacific sea nettle jellyfish image from Wikimedia Commons.

This image was made by Ian Howat, with the BYRD Polar Research Center, showing the crack growing over a period of 7 years. Once the crack gets just a little longer, a huge hunk of the Petermann Glacier will drift into the ocean and melt.

According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:

The crack is 7 miles long and about half a mile wide. It is about half the width of the 500 square mile floating part of the glacier. Other smaller fractures can be seen in images of the ice tongue, a long narrow sliver of the glacier.

"The pictures speak for themselves," said Jason Box, a glacier expert at the Byrd Polar Research Center at Ohio State University who spotted the changes while studying new satellite images. "This crack is moving, and moving closer and closer to the front. It's just a matter of time till a much larger piece is going to break off.... It is imminent."

Of course an ice-free Arctic could turn Greenland into the center of a new Arctic Circle trade zone. Which might explain why some researchers in the Star Tribune article say there's nothing wrong with a little ice breakup.

Northern Greenland Glaciers Showing Fractures [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

A new program starting up at Swansea and Cork Universities called EcoJel will devote over half a million pounds to the study of the jellyfish invasion. The (literally) brainless creatures will be tagged so their migration patterns and preferred environments can be tracked. And researchers will also look at the impact the wiggly Cnidiarians have on coastal ecosystems. Very little is known about jellyfish, so the scientists view this as an opportunity to learn as much as they can. Or a chance to eat a tasty new sea-going treat.

Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones suggested:

[The jellyfish] could provide an eco-tourist attraction for recreational divers. The project will also explore the potential of harvesting jellyfish in a sustainable way for food to export to Asian markets.

That's the spirit: Climate change is an opportunity, not a disaster! We can all start eating more jellyfish, or going on tours to see them.

EcoJel [Swansea University via TreeHugger]