Giant jellyfish invade Japan

National Geographic posted a selection of photos related to the massive Nomura's jellyfish that may inundate Japanese waters this summer. The magnificent photo above was taken off the cost of Japan in 2007 when the jellyfish wreaked havoc on fishing nets and spoiled catches with their toxins. From National Geographic:

Scientists have since been racing to unlock the mysteries of this giant jellyfish species in an attempt to forecast invasions and prevent damages.

This June researchers at Hiroshima University made some of the first surveys of the jellyfish's spawning grounds off the Chinese coast. The team found a huge new brood lurking in the waters, prompting experts to warn that another giant jellyfish invasion may be on the horizon.

"GIANT JELLYFISH PICTURES: Japan's Nomura Invasion"

• [Anonymous]

  wow those are some massive jellyfish my dad is in japan at the moment he said he almost got stung
  ouchez!

• [Meduse]

  I don’t think you’re ready for this jelly.

  Not sure about delicious, but they’re apparently very low calorie (except perhaps in ice cream form). A superfood to market to dieters?

• [mdh]

  Once upon a time, the sea was nothing BUT jellies. This could happen again and if it does, you would likely die.

  spot on. That would be big, and appears to be our current trajectory.

• [JimXugle]

  But are they edible?

• [Kieran O’Neill]

  @Patrick Dodds: See this article (and a photo with the diver at a more comparable distance from the camera). Note that they claim in the article that the things can grow up to 2 metres (6 foot) in diameter.

  @Jimxugle, re edibility:

  Cookies made from giant jellyfish:
  “students from Obama Fisheries High School in Fukui prefecture developed a method for turning the invading jellyfish into powder. A Fukui-area company followed up with a cookie recipe that includes the powdered jellyfish as an ingredient. The result is a cookie with a superbly textured sweetness nicely complemented by the bitter, salty flavor of jellyfish.”

• [sgj]

  Forget edible… Can we get high on this?

• [Fred H]

  @#4, StRevAlex,
  It’s funny because I’ve heard them referred to as the “cockroaches of the sea.” I agree with you, they look neat-o.

• [l’elk!]

  this should be the image posted in the article…

  http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v95/iamthedigitalme/jellyfishattack.jpg

• [Ned613]

  “But are they edible?”

  Its simply a matter of supply and demand. If they were edible we would have jellyfish aquaculture by now.

• [JIMWICh]

  In my alternate, much more awesome universe these giant jellyfish aren’t merely edible, they’re delicious! And what’s more, there are also peanutbutterfish.

• [Takuan]

  not funny. Once upon a time, the sea was nothing BUT jellies. This could happen again and if it does, you would likely die.

• [StRevAlex]

  They’re just beautiful. Jellyfish are the great Mysteries of the Sea.

• [Anonymous]

  I saw a fantastic documentary about these jellyfish once, in which they explained that the Japanese first tried to get rid of them by cutting them to pieces with special nets (IIRC). But the jellyfish responded by releasing all their eggs and sperm in the sea, thus ensuring the maximum amount of offspring possible. So they have to be gotten rid of in some other way.

• [SomeGuy]

  JIMXUGLE @1

  Only with peanutbutterfish.

• [Patrick Dodds]

  Erm, aren’t the jellyfish close to the camera, the divers not, and, erm, they look big? What’s the word – per-something….

  This idea has been cleverly explained on that well known physics programme, Father Ted:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmU_q5xrnto

• [seyo]

  #1 beat me to it, was my first thought.

• [Anonymous]

  what is the cost of Japan these days?

• [Nadreck]

  I, for one, welcome our new jellyfish overlords.

• [Anonymous]

  I for one welcome etc etc…

• [bohemianwriter]

  Funny the comment about whether they’re edible because in the process of writing a blog post for my Animal Planet story on the topic, I learned a company is actually making ICE CREAM of all things out of them! Eww! http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news/

• [Shimray]

  Photoshop… :]

• [Anonymous]

  Most photos of Nomura’s jellyfish use perspective to make them look bigger. It’s tremendously annoying.

• [Anonymous]

  i think they are beatyfull creatures and u guys should leave them alone and stop talking about eating them

• [Anonymous]

  Hey, patrick, got a link that’ll work for us USians?