Dec 12, 2009

I Don't Think You're Ready for this Jelly

The nomura jellyfish gets over 6 feet in diameter and can reach a weight of over 600 lbs (sounds like an uncle of mine). They are nuisances to Japanese and Korean fisherman (see the last photo). But, most importantly for us, they look like pale bells trailing bundles of viscera.

Oh, and one pleasant little note: if hurt or killed they release countless sperm and eggs that settle onto any nearby surface. So be careful if you're scuba diving among them -- you don't want to be coated with jellyfish...jelly.

Thanks for the photo, Jelo.


6 comments:

Sabina E. said...

jellyfish is actually one of my favourite undersea creatures. So beautiful and fascinating.

morgan said...

The good news for DIMA (and the bad news for the millions of people and animals who rely on fish to survive) is that rising CO2 levels (which are associated not only with global warming, but also ocean acidification) are causing a surge in jellyfish populations, and a record crash in worldwide fish stocks (our relentless overfishing doesn't help). :/

the ginabean said...

Noooooo! Please tell me these pictures are photoshopped! Nightmare! Why do I keep coming back to this blog?! It feels like one of those accidents that you can't not look at. YIKES!

BLOGitse said...

wow, those are huge!
I never swim in a sea again, autch!

Kristina said...

The bad part about their proliferation is that it took a long time of fisherman adopting the practice of slaughtering them, until they realized that they released their eggs and sperm during death. The fisherman thought they were doing the world a favor in lowering the population, when really they were only contributing to it exponentially!

Anonymous said...

It's almost like a sci-fi movie.
"Noooooooooooooooooooo, don't shoot it!!!" *SPLORTCH!*

Next scene: 10 years later

Screen is full of giant jellyfish.

THE END