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You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/07/weatherwatch-climate-change-and-overfishing-bring-explosion-of-jellyfish
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Weatherwatch: climate change and overfishing bring explosion of jellyfish | Weatherwatch: climate change and overfishing bring explosion of jellyfish |
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The combination of climate change and overfishing is causing a population explosion in jellyfish. Since there are fewer fish to eat them, they appear off the British coast in vast swarms. This is a threat to nuclear power stations – because they can block the intake of cooling water – and to fish farms, where thousands get caught in the netting, sometimes killing hundreds of salmon by depriving them of oxygen. | The combination of climate change and overfishing is causing a population explosion in jellyfish. Since there are fewer fish to eat them, they appear off the British coast in vast swarms. This is a threat to nuclear power stations – because they can block the intake of cooling water – and to fish farms, where thousands get caught in the netting, sometimes killing hundreds of salmon by depriving them of oxygen. |
Some species are poisonous, and so caution is required when jellyfish float next to you in the sea or are stranded on beaches. Their sting can be powerful. | Some species are poisonous, and so caution is required when jellyfish float next to you in the sea or are stranded on beaches. Their sting can be powerful. |
With the problem worsening as the seas get both more acid and warmer, the European Union has decided it needs to better understand how these blooms occur and think of a way of stopping them before they reach our coastal waters. | With the problem worsening as the seas get both more acid and warmer, the European Union has decided it needs to better understand how these blooms occur and think of a way of stopping them before they reach our coastal waters. |
Since the potential mass of these blooms in Europe is enormous – already 1bn tons for one imported species, the American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) – the EU also wants to find a way of utilising this potential resource. | Since the potential mass of these blooms in Europe is enormous – already 1bn tons for one imported species, the American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi) – the EU also wants to find a way of utilising this potential resource. |
Scientists from 15 institutions have been allocated €6m (£5.3m) over four years to try and find a way of converting them into something useful. One idea is processing them into food for fish farms, or better still, thinking of a way to make them less slimy and presenting them as a human food. | Scientists from 15 institutions have been allocated €6m (£5.3m) over four years to try and find a way of converting them into something useful. One idea is processing them into food for fish farms, or better still, thinking of a way to make them less slimy and presenting them as a human food. |
Other suggestions include converting them into cosmetics, since they contain collagen, much used in skin creams, or using their sticky mucus to tackle another environmental problem – microplastic. Jellyfish biofilters fixed to sewage outfalls could capture the plastic before it reached the sea. | Other suggestions include converting them into cosmetics, since they contain collagen, much used in skin creams, or using their sticky mucus to tackle another environmental problem – microplastic. Jellyfish biofilters fixed to sewage outfalls could capture the plastic before it reached the sea. |
Marine life | Marine life |
Weatherwatch | Weatherwatch |
Wildlife | Wildlife |
Weather | Weather |
Meteorology | Meteorology |
features | features |
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