What’s 6 feet wide, weighs 440 pounds, and can ruin your whole day? If you’re a Japanese fisherman, the answer is Nomura’s jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai), or, as the Japanese call it, echizen kurage.
The gigantic creature can wreak havoc on fishing nets and their contents, destroying the nets and poisoning the catch. Even nuclear powerplants aren’t safe: Reports describe the jellyfish being sucked into pumps that draw seawater to cool the reactors.
Echizen kurage have shown up in Japanese waters in increasing numbers in recent years. The population surge of 2005 was particularly bad, affecting the salmon, yellowtail, and anchovy fisheries. But the mass of them gathering now in the Yellow Sea off China is the biggest ever, and eventually ocean currents will deliver them to Japan’s doorstep.
The reasons for the exploding population are not clear. Theories range from agriculture runoff to overfishing to global warming. As for fighting the jellyfish, methods are few and far between. In fact, when under attack, the creatures release millions of sperm or eggs, all with the potential to grow more jellyfish.
There have been efforts to make the most of this plague by creating jellyfish products. Some of them are edible, including ice cream and even cookies. Echizen kurage is also a source of collagen, which can be used in cosmetics.
But the jellyfish invasion in store for Japan this time around is likely to deliver more raw materials than any such efforts could possibly keep up with. The result could be devastation for much of Japan’s fishing industry.
pacat
WOW!!!! I think for once I can think of nothing to say.Sure will be enough collagen to plump every pair of lips in the world.Maybe dry them and use them for fertilizer
Meduse
Great YouTube video, I love the way they move.
I've read that new ways of serving up jellyfish as food as being devised as a way of coping with the influx of jellyfish. There's a jellyfish ice cream created by a company called Tango Jersey Dairy which could be tasty. Or just chewy.
There's more jellyfish news and pics here: http://readysteadyjelly.blogspot.com
Syl
I wanna see one of these fight a giant squid…
pacat
That would be the ultimate cage fight…….I wonder if they would need an agent? hmmmmmmm
Loud Shirt Chip
I'd pay to see that…
Akira
do these have the same devastating effect like the man-o-wars???
Patti
Wow it's big.
teri
how bigg was it it dose not say ???????
Peter Oz
It could be similar to the giant squid in mexico, they find it easier to hunt in low oxygen water and when you chop down the trees you dont get more trees you get weeds could apply to this e.g. the trees would be the large fish species etc.. once they are gone the jellyfish will thrive, get used to eating jelly and squid