A number of incredible crop circles have appeared this year,
including one that represents a
jellyfish, at a time when strange
jellyfish-shaped lightning appeared over France, and the
world jellyfish population is exploding, crowding out edible
ocean fish. Is all this a warning for us?
Massive swarms of jellyfish are transforming many fisheries
and tourist destinations into "jellytoriums" that cover
hundreds of square miles, endangering the world's food
supply. Areas in the US that are hit by this include Hawaii,
the Gulf of Mexico, and the East Coast. These jellyfish range
in size from tiny, peanut-sized to huge jellies (the size of
refrigerators) in Japan. The Portuguese Man-of-War, depicted
in the crop circle, has tentacles which can grow to be 30
feet long. The causes include pollution, climate change,
introductions of non-native species, overfishing and the
presence of offshore drilling rigs.
Australian researcher Anthony Richardson says, "Mounting
evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from
being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish. This
would have lasting ecological, economic and social
consequences. We need to start managing the marine
environment in a holistic and precautionary way to prevent
more examples of what could be termed a 'jellyfish joyride.'"
Here's ANOTHER warning: in LiveScience, Jeanna Bryner
describes "an eerie red figure [that] flashed across the sky
above a thunderstorm near the south coast of France" that
was "gone in the blink of an eye." This was an example of the
type of lightning that atmospheric scientists call a "sprite"
because it disappears so quickly. These are extremely short
flashes of light that occur high above thunderstorms. Spanish
researcher Oscar van der Velde recently photographed one
from his apartment balcony that looks like…a JELLYFISH.
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Art credits: Lucy Pringle and Oscar van der Velde
