Jellyfish Swarms: Menacing or Misunderstood?
Blaise Sevier
2010-11-09
LiveScience.com
Jellyfish, they seem like very calm creatures that just ride the waves, that fact is true, but they are also very dangerous creatures. Jellyfish have very fierce tentacles that can sometimes even kill people! Even though jellyfish are 95% water some jellyfish’s’ tentacles’ can grow to be half the length of a football field! Did you know that Jellyfish have no brain, no blood, or a nervous system? Jellyfish aren’t as harmless as you think they are the cause many problems in waters. Jellyfish block cooling systems of power plants, kill penned salmon and clog fishing nets. In the past few years’ studies have shown that there have been more Jellyfish swarms. What scientists conclude in this study is that the Jellyfish are taking advantage of the changes in the oceans environment. Some of the changes in the oceans environment are the factor of warmth; this could be the reason why this species is expanding so rapidly. Overfishing is a big problem in the world; this factor helps the Jellyfish by reducing the predators and the competition in the waters. Surprisingly pollution is also a factor that benefits the Jellyfish. Pollution in the water promotes phytoplankton blooms, which Jellyfish love to eat. Some scientists think that this could majorly affect our earth; other scientists think that it’s all part of a healthy ecosystem. I guess with some more research we will find out whether this is a big problem or not, hopefully when we get the results back we will have some good news.
Finding out about Jellyfish was extremely interesting! Whoever knew that some Jellyfishes tentacles’ grew to half the size of a soccer field?! When we lived in Egypt there was a ton of Jellyfish, some as small as your fist, others as big as your head! I remember one time my friend and I we were at the beach and wading out in the water and a ton of Jellyfish started swarming around us! Thankfully they didn’t sting, but what we did notice is that the beach with a lot of trash in the water had the most Jellyfish; the beach with not as much trash did not have any at all! I found this to be very puzzling, why would the Jellyfish want our trash? Is there some sort of ingredient in it that the Jellyfish like, or is the Jellyfishes food source weak? Could these Jellyfish be adapting to the gross polluted environment, or could they be just good at adapting? Is that the reason why these animals have survived so long?
Parry, By Wynne. "Jellyfish Swarms: Menacing or Misunderstood? ? | Overfishing & Climate Change & Pollution, Marine Ecosystem | LiveScience." LiveScience | Science, Technology, Health & Environmental News. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.livescience.com/animals/rise-of-the-jellyfish-101007.html>.
"Google Image Result for Http://www.funny-potato.com/images/animals/jellyfish/jellyfish.jpg." Google. Web. 09 Nov. 2010. <http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.funny-potato.com/images/animals/jellyfish/jellyfish.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.funny-potato.com/jellyfish.html&usg=__1MYKbkiqDgOLYpNVUWeRR_msqLg=&h=334&w=500&sz=227&hl=en&start=0&sig2=eW4Y-nc82Fdo7iAyVN5_9g&zoom=1&tbnid=LWL36DU9Lx_BqM:&tbnh=136&tbnw=190&ei=Cm7ZTI3bG4i6jAfwsrXfCA&prev=/images?q=jellyfish&um=1&hl=en&biw=1503&bih=604&tbs=isch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=659&vpy=128&dur=671&hovh=138&hovw=208&tx=174&ty=90&oei=Cm7ZTI3bG4i6jAfwsrXfCA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=22&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0>.
Nice job! I liked how you posted questions in the middle of your paragraph, that really caught our attention! And in your conclusion, I liked how you connected this to your own life- like how you saw jellyfish with your friend. I find it interesting too, why were the jellyfish mostly in the dirty polluted water?
ReplyDeleteKeep it up! :)
wow! thats so cool! its kind of weird reading about overpopulation being a problem and global warming actually helping a species grow and expand, when im so used to reading about how global warming only leads animals to extinction. i guess that for every reaction theres an opposite reaction. i think you summarized your article well and you included a lot of detail. i liked the personal imput at the end!
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