frogblog

As I previously mentioned, my current reading on the lilypad is Tim Flannery’s The Weather Makers. I’m finding that many of things he talks about have an uncanny habit of cropping up in the news shortly after I read them.

Consider this (pg 97):

As the krill numbers decreased, those of another major grazing species - the jelly-like salps - have increased. Salps, which have previously been confined to more northerly waters, don’t require a great density of plankton to thrive; indeed so modest are their dietary needs that they can survive on the meagre pickings offered by the ice-free parts of the Southern Ocean. As far as a whale is concerned, salps are so devoid of nutrients that an ocean stocked to choking point with them is useless. Indeed, none of the Antarctic’s marine mammals or birds finds it worthwhile feeding on them.

And then (pg 98):

Such studies suggest that in the near future a point will be reached where, one after another, krill-dependent species will be unable to feed.

[snip]

Instead we’ll have an ocean full of jelly-like salps, the ultimate inheritors of a defrosting cryosphere.

The point is, of course, is that there are certain unpleasant species that thrive as biodiversity collapses. Think seagulls and rubbish tips.

So a story about another type of jelly fish taking over another bit of sea thousands of kilometers from the Antarctic caught my eye. Reuters reports:

A slimy jellyfish weighing as much as a sumo wrestler has Japan’s fishing industry in the grip of its poisonous tentacles.

Vast numbers of Echizen kurage, or Nomura’s jellyfish, have appeared around Japan’s coast since July, clogging and ripping fishing nets and forcing fishermen to spend hours hacking them apart before bringing home their reduced catches.

They’re pretty things in the water…

Not so good in the net however…

But like the sarp, climate change is a likely cause. The Economist reports:

No one knows the exact reason for the rise in the jellyfish population, but there are suspicions. One is the development of ports and harbours along the Chinese coast, which has created many more structures to which echizen larvae can attach themselves. Another is that the seas off China are choked with nutrient-rich run-off from farms and industry. A third is Chinese overfishing in local waters: with fewer fish, there are more of the kinds of plankton on which the jellyfish feed. A final possibility is global warming.

OK, the sting in the tail?

According to the NBR, its all okay, cos money can still be made.

Facing ruin, Japanese fisherfolk have used characteristic ingenuity to turn a problem into profit, however, by using them as food.

That may sound bizarre, but the Japanese are merely following the lead of the Chinese — who prize jellyfish as an ingredient in seafood dishes — in doing so.

Media reports say coastal communities are promoting the jellyfish as a novelty food, sold dried and salted.

Yep, capitalism will still be functioning when only us and the cockroaches are left…

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