This week in jellyfish

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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby Jeff » Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:03 pm

Bigger jellyfish are inheriting the ocean, study finds
Bodies bloat with water as competitors are wiped out by fishing, habitat destruction

Miguel Llanos
msnbc.com
updated 9/15/2011 2:33:47 PM ET

Will jellyfish inherit the Earth, or at least the oceans?

A study released Thursday found that the spineless creatures are becoming the dominant predator in areas where fish species are being reduced by overfishing and habitat destruction.

It's not just that reduced competition is giving the jellyfish more room. The jellyfish themselves are evolving into bigger specimens by increasing the water content in their gels, the study concluded.

Since jellyfish don't swim much, they mostly float, that larger mass gives them much better chances of floating into their prey — as well as into other jellyfish for sexual reproduction.

Because of that evolutionary trait, jellyfish have similar potential for growth and reproduction as their fish competitors, the researchers found.

"To achieve this production, they have evolved large, water-laden bodies that increase prey contact rates," the researchers wrote in a study titled: "Faking Giants: The Evolution of High Prey Clearance Rates in Jellyfish."

"While fish developed visual acuity to detect prey, jellyfish depend on a primitive system based on direct contact with prey," noted study co-author Angel Lopez-Urrutia of Spain's Oviedo University. "The key to their success is that by increasing their body size they displace more water and drag more prey toward their tentacles. It's an effective strategy as long as the swimming pace of jellyfish is sufficiently slow."

Unless overfishing is curbed and habitat restored, the authors wrote, the findings suggest "a future 'gelatinous' ocean reminiscent of the early Ediacaran" Period some 600 million years ago.

...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44523885/ns ... vironment/
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Terrorist by Mhara Costello

Postby utopiate » Fri Sep 16, 2011 2:13 am

Lots of Jellys here

http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/terrorist.html

Just a Word

‘Terrorist’ is just a word, one I wish I’d never heard

When it’s used to vilify, without the need to question why

Only fools would swift condemn, that which has not befallen them

Until you know what lies behind, the actions of a tortured mind

Thank your God for sparing you, the suffering others have lived through

Where are the cries of just demand, for Arabs driven from their land?

Blame the victim, turn the cheek, praise the bully, kick the weak!

Mock the man who truth does speak

Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy, greed, corruption, torture, lies!

Blair invasion, sly persuasion, annihilation, massacred nation

Keep on running, karma’s coming!

Money talks, truth walks, oil spills, greed kills

Tide is turning, London’s burning!

Bombs will fall and blood will flow, as sure as my own name I know

Until corrupt dictators go, brutal, rotten, to the core

Their day has come, they rule no more

Show me the man who will not fight, to save his child, his home, his right!

You can call him what you like, you’re not in his sorry plight

Cowards stay and Martyrs go, I know not where, but this I know

Speak your truth and stand your ground, fight your corner

When all around, point the finger, purse the lips, pin the label, ‘Terrorist’!

Just a word, but one that sticks, even when the cap don’t fit

But for the grace of God go I, remember that, before you cry

False accusation, names of shame, at those who may not be to blame,

Their crime, refused to play the game, of meek acceptance, dumbing down,

Your life, your choice; Warrior / Clown
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Re: Terrorist by Mhara Costello

Postby elfismiles » Sat Sep 17, 2011 6:22 pm

utopiate wrote:Lots of Jellys here

http://www.adbusters.org/abtv/terrorist.html

Just a Word

‘Terrorist’ is just a word, one I wish I’d never heard




Nice Utopiate! Thanks.
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby aimdrained » Sun Sep 18, 2011 10:53 pm

Looks like the jellyfish are ringing islands around the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi.

http://blog.al.com/live/2011/09/moon_jellies_swarm_in_alabama.html
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby crikkett » Fri Nov 04, 2011 4:49 pm

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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby Project Willow » Fri Dec 09, 2011 7:08 pm

Image

Moon Jellyfish Kill Tons of Goliath Groupers At St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant

Jellyfish must be passionate critics of nuclear energy. This past summer, they sacrificed their own lives to clog up nuclear power plants from as close as St. Lucie to as far away as U.K., Israel, and Japan. The sea creatures are unfortunate casualties of power plants that suck in water and marine life as opposed to South Florida's Turkey Point, which reuses and recirculates water.

In August, a massive influx of moon jellyfish clogged up the St. Lucie nuclear power plant, shutting down operations for a whole two days. The swarm of transparent creatures proved no match for the plant, which was constructed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet.

According to the Palm Beach Post, it wasn't just nuclear energy that was killed that August day. When the jellyfish got clogged in the system, their poisonous tentacles broke off as they traveled through the plant's pipes. Water in the intake canal became thick with the jellyfish's lethal body parts and other wildlife became trapped in a fatal web of stings.

Inwater Research Group biologists, who were onsite to oversee the plant's sea turtle protection program, poured vinegar over the swollen gills of trapped goliath groupers. Only ten were saved before the divers themselves had to be rescued. In all, upwards of 75 goliath grouper -- each weighing an average of 200 pounds -- were killed in the storm of rogue tentacles.

FPL is required to report any deaths of endangered species to Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Although the World Conservation Union (IUCN) considers these fish "Critically Endangered," in Florida, the massive groupers are only classified as prohibited.

Because of their impressive size (the largest one on record was 800 pounds), slow growth rate, and low rate of reproduction, the species population was in rapid decline before restrictions were placed in 1990. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission nows prohibits harvesting goliath groupers. If you inadvertently catch one, you must immediately release it back into the ocean. The sudden loss of almost a hundred goliath groupers is a big hit to the local population.

As far as the jellyfish, they might be coming back. Last week, tourists spotted a mass of moon jellyfish off the coast of Pompano Beach. Keep an eye out for lifeguards' purple warning flags. Marine Biological Association spokesmen say sudden blooms can be linked to climate change and overfishing of jellyfish predators.

Video at the link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/08/jellyfish-grouper-power-plant_n_1136811.html
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby slomo » Thu Jan 19, 2012 1:40 am

I shamelessly ripped off the idea from Cryptogon, but Kevin can sue me over the IP violation...

Researchers Drilling Thousands of Meters Into Frozen Antarctic Lake

Background material if you don't know what this has to do with jellyfish: At the Mountains of Madness.
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby MinM » Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:18 pm

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Experts question: Jellyfish really on the rise?

UC SANTA BARBARA (US) — Claims that jellyfish are increasing worldwide are not backed up by any hard evidence or scientific analyses, according to a new study...

http://www.futurity.org/science-technol ... -the-rise/
Earth-704509
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby utopiate » Fri Mar 23, 2012 2:21 pm

...because there aren’t enough in the sea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 2OSJQhHQp8
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby Marie Laveau » Wed May 09, 2012 8:47 am

I can't capture the picture in this article, but it shows the gigantic pacific garbage patch, or a piece of it, with jellyfish floating around the plastic...almost lovingly...

http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/09/11612593-study-plastic-in-great-pacific-garbage-patch-increases-100-fold?lite
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby elfismiles » Thu May 10, 2012 9:53 pm

If there has been a more Cthulian creature I've not seen one... W-T-F???!!!???


What Is That? Underwater Drilling Camera Catches Giant Sea Creature
May 10, 2012 1:29 PM


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E-8_wDgN7c

...

“This bag-like jelly is not that rare, but is large, so rarely seen intact,” Haddock said on his “JellyWatch” Facebook page. “In the video, the swirling from the sub makes the medusa appear to undulate and it even turns inside-out.”

This type of jellyfish is usually found in the south Atlantic Ocean, some 5,000 feet below. According to the Marine Species Identification Portal, the jellyfish has “oral arms […] terminating in curious hook-shaped organ[s].”

CBS Tampa has reached out to multiple marine biologists for comment.

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2012/05/10/wh ... -creature/

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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby elfismiles » Mon May 14, 2012 9:23 am

More jellyfish lamps...

Image


elfismiles wrote:
... and be sure to have some of those jellyfish chandeliers at the venue...

Image

[ via this thread: So if, say, in Summer of 2011, there's an RI conference,
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=27857 ]

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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby Jeff » Thu Jul 19, 2012 9:24 am

Aliens could resemble jellyfish the size of a football field says government advisor

According to a British satellite expert and government adviser the outlandish alien imaginings of Hollywood may not be quite alien enough...

Rob Williams Friday 06 July 2012

From little green men to the crustacean-like 'prawns' of 'District 9' and H.R.Giger's nightmarish creation in the 'Alien' films - our appetite for imagining how visitors from another planet might look shows no sign of diminishing.

According to a British satellite expert and government adviser, however, the outlandish imaginings of Hollywood may not be quite alien enough.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock - a leading scientist at European space company Astrium - has suggested that, far from being little green men, aliens could actually look like giant jellyfish.

The bizarre creatures the British scientist has dreamt up are she says an example of life "not as we know it".

The aliens she imagines are the product of what evolution might create on a world such as Saturn's moon Titan.

She imagines aliens that drift through methane clouds scooping up chemical nutrients into their mouths.

The creatures could also be able to live off light taken in through their skin, says the scientist.

The alien jellyfish - which Dr Aderin-Pocock imagines could be the size of a football field and have an orange underbelly - would be generated from silicon as opposed to carbon, which is the basis of all life as we know it.

The orange underbelly could act as a camouflage allowing them to evade would-be predators.

The aliens are kept afloat by onion-shaped buoyancy bags that dangle from their body, taking in or letting out gas in order to gain or lose altitude.

She also suggests they could communicate using pulses of light.

...


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scien ... 20027.html

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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby Allegro » Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:15 am

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Art will be the last bastion when all else fades away.
~ Timothy White (b 1952), American rock music journalist
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Re: This week in jellyfish

Postby compared2what? » Sat Dec 01, 2012 2:59 am

Can a Jellyfish Unlock the Secret of Immortality?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/magaz ... l?hpw&_r=0
“If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and 50 dollars in cash I don’t care if a Drone kills him or a policeman kills him.” -- Rand Paul
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