The Stinging Edge

When do you know that you are in trouble? When the friendly jellyfish just stung you on the ass on the beach. If you just want to shrug it off as an annoyance, you had better think again. One of the terrible consequences of global warming, pollution, and over fishing is that jellyfish populations are on the rise; actually they are exploding. The jellyfish may be the oceans ultimate survivor, able to thrive when all other species die. Ever since mankind developed an insatiable taste for seafood and raped the oceans, the jellyfish have been getting less competition from predators such as the Shark and Swordfish. Add in global warming and the associated declines in rainfall, the natural barrier of less salty water has been lost. Pollution has only amplified the problem by removing oxygen from the oceans, which the jellyfish don’t really need. Where once jellyfish sightings where rare: they are now frequently closing beaches and clogging fishermen nets.
This fraken mess could be partially fixed if nations could just agree to close sections of ocean to fishing and allow the ecosystem to restore itself; short of that restaurants may need to redraw their menus in the future. Want some jellyfish with your shrimp?