Swarm of Giant Jellyfish Capsize 10-Ton Trawler 227
Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the Japanese trawler Diasan Shinsho-maru has capsized off the coast of China, as its three-man crew dragged their net through a swarm of giant jellyfish (which can grow up to six feet in diameter and travel in packs) and tried to haul up a net that was too heavy. The crew was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler. Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures. Experts believe that one contributing factor to the jellyfish becoming more frequent visitors to Japanese waters may be a decline in the number of predators, which include sea turtles and certain species of fish. 'Jellies have likely swum and swarmed in our seas for over 600 million years,' says scientist Monty Graham of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama. 'When conditions are right, jelly swarms can form quickly. They appear to do this for sexual reproduction.'"
Chiba != China (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Don't kill predators (Score:1, Informative)
hunter/gatherer economics are for barbarians.
which some of us still are, so shut up before I club your head with my stick
Re:'Sexual' reproduction? (Score:5, Informative)
> As opposed to what? Cloning?
Well, yes, actually. Jellyfish reproduce both sexually and asexually.
Re:'Sexual' reproduction? (Score:4, Informative)
As opposed to what? Cloning?
Actually, yes. Jellyfish normally asexually reproduce; essentially cloning. They can also sexually reproduce.
Re:I don't mean to Troll (Score:5, Informative)
"unless somebody doesn't actually know that troll and trawl do mean exactly the same thing in this case?"
Incorrect. Trawling is done using a net, typically in the open ocean. It scoops up a lot of different crap, as the fishermen found out.
Trolling is done with a hook and lure/bait. The slow forward motion of the boat makes the lure or bait appear to be alive, or the movement attracts the fish's eye.
Just a fun fact.
Re:Don't kill predators (Score:3, Informative)
"If it were just diet, farmers would simply change the diet of the animal for the last couple of weeks to change the taste."
Whoosh?
If it were just diet, farmers would simply change the diet of the animal for the last couple of weeks to change the taste.
Canada
The majority of beef cattle in Ontario are finished on a corn (maize)-based diet, whereas Western Canadian beef is finished on a barley-based diet. This rule is not absolute, however, as producers in both regions will alter the mix of feed grains according to changes in feed prices. Research by the Ontario government claims that, while Alberta beef producers have organized a sucessful marketing campaign promoting Alberta's barley-fed beef, corn-fed and barley-fed beef have a similar cost, quality, and taste.[1]
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Note the term "finished". They DO feed the cattle as cheaply as possible, until shortly before slaughter. THEN, they are finished with barley or corn.
Re:Don't kill predators (Score:3, Informative)
I always thought it interesting that people think equilibrium is a ecosystem free of humans. Aren't humans a part of the ecosystem.
Perhaps when we were dumb monkeys and there were something like 40,000 - 200,000 of us you could make this argument. However we grew brains and one result is that there are over 6 billion of us and growing. Not sustainable.
This is happening in the US too (Score:4, Informative)
In the Chesapeake Bay, jellyfish populations are proportional to pollution. Pollution kills the turtles that eat the jellyfish eggs and feeds the jellies. They don't mind the cruddy water.