Millions of jellyfish gather in a marine lake in Palau in the Pacific. Scientists believe that some jellyfish swarms are natural phenomena and that some jellyfish swarms are promoted by human activities.
Click on image for full size
Image Courtesy of Michael Dawson, University of California, Merced
New Online Report on Massive Jellyfish Swarms Released
News story originally written on January 6, 2009
Parts of the ocean are filling up with swarms of stinging jellyfish and jellyfish-like animals. Areas that are hard-hit by jellyfish include Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the east coast of the U.S., the Bering Sea, the Mediterranean Sea, Australia, the Black Sea, and the Sea of Japan.
Massive jellyfish swarms have caused injuries and even occasional deaths to people in the ocean. They have also caused serious damage to fisheries, fish farms, ships, and nuclear power plants. Some of these swarms cover hundreds of square miles.
Scientists think the population explosions of jellyfish are being caused by human activities like pollution, climate change, overfishing, and structures like oil and gas rigs. But which of these human activities, if any of them, are really to blame?
The National Science Foundation has released Jellyfish Gone Wild, which features eye-popping photos and videos of jellyfish, stinging statistics about jellyfish swarms, and interesting explanations of how and why jellyfish swarms form. The report can be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp.
You might also be interested in:

Have you heard about rivers, lakes, or streams becoming polluted? Sometimes the pollution is from trash or from dangerous things spilled into the water. However, sometimes the source of water pollution
...more
Scientists have learned that Mount Hood, Oregon's tallest mountain, has erupted in the past due to the mixing of two different types of magma. Adam Kent, a geologist at Oregon State University, says this
...more
The Earth's mantle is a rocky, solid shell that is between the Earth's crust and the outer core. The mantle is made up of many different reservoirs that have different chemical compositions. Scientists
...more
Some faults look strong and like they wouldn’t cause an earthquake. But it turns out that they can slip and slide like weak faults causing earthquakes. Scientists have been looking at one of these faults
...more
The sun goes through cycles that last approximately 11 years. These solar cycle include phases with more magnetic activity, sunspots, and solar flares. They also include phases with less activity. The
...more
Studying tree rings doesn't only tell us the age of that tree. Tree rings also show what climate was like while the tree was alive. This means that tree rings can tell us about climates of the past. Two
...more
Earth's first life form may have developed between the layers of a chunk of mica sitting like a multilayered sandwich in primordial waters, according to a new hypothesis. The mica hypothesis, which was
...more