They're Taking Over

That's the title of a book review in the NY Review of Books.  It is a review by Tim Flannery of "Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean".  It is very scary.  The essential point is that the jellyfish population is growing tremendously.  Lisa-ann Gershwin, the author of the book concludes

When I began writing this book,… I had a naive gut feeling that all was still salvageable…. But I think I underestimated how severely we have damaged our oceans and their inhabitants. I now think that we have pushed them too far, past some mysterious tipping point that came and went without fanfare, with no red circle on the calendar and without us knowing the precise moment it all became irreversible. I now sincerely believe that it is only a matter of time before the oceans as we know them and need them to be become very different places indeed. No coral reefs teeming with life. No more mighty whales or wobbling penguins. No lobsters or oysters. Sushi without fish.

Her final word to her readers: “Adapt.”

Jellyfish are appearing for the first time in a number of places from Cape Town to Florida. They became so plentiful in the Black Sea that their total weight was estimated to be ten times greater than the weight of all fish caught in a year.  And they are also affecting such man-made objects as the aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan, Japan's nuclear power plants, the electrical system in the Philippines.  Another book excerpt:

If I offered evidence that jellyfish are displacing penguins in Antarctica—not someday, but now, today—what would you think? If I suggested that jellyfish could crash the world’s fisheries, outcompete the tuna and swordfish, and starve the whales to extinction, would you believe me?

Of course, we are well aware that the sting of a jellyfish can be fatal. This one

could kill you in two minutes.  The irukandji shown below makes you hang around for twelve hours or so in tremendous pain.