Cartoon of the month
There has been a large increase in the number of people being stung by jellyfish over the past few years as jellyfish numbers have been skyrocketing. Massive blooms of thousands of jellyfish have been appearing on beaches killing people and putting large numbers in hospital, ruining people’s holidays and devastating tourist industries, blocking water inlets to power station and factories. Fishermen have been catching more jellyfish than fish. There has been huge disruption to marine ecosystems.
As usual the cause of this disaster is us humans. Polluting and deoxygenating the oceans with agricultural runoff and industrial wast and warming the oceans with climate change has created the perfect environment for jellyfish to thrive. Structures like jetties and oil rigs are the perfect places for jellyfish to breed. Super trawlers with massive fishing nets have emptied the oceans of fish thereby tilting the ecological balance in favour of jellyfish. According to the U.N. nearly 90% of the world’s marine fish stocks are now fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. https://unctad.org/news/90-fish-stocks-are-used-fisheries-subsidies-must-stop
For millions of years the dominant animal in the marine ecosystem has been fish. But there is the real possibility that in the near future there will be a tipping point where the dominant marine animal becomes the jellyfish – jellyfication of the seas and oceans. Enjoy your jellyfish and chips.
