WHY THE JELLYFISH?
Jellyfish are a profoundly powerful symbol for the declining health of our world's oceans. They are known as an indicator species, meaning changes in their populations represent greater changes in the ecosystem. Around the world today, jellyfish are thriving in record numbers. This is not good. It's happening due to the relentless overfishing of their predators, as well as an increase in ocean temperature and acidity. It's not that jellyfish are the problem necessarily, but their increased presence is a warning sign that something is out of balance in the oceans.
Jellyfish expert Lisa-Ann Gershwin tells CNN's Patricia Wu why the world's jellyfish population is getting out of hand.
Lisa-ann Gershwin warns us that jellyfish are flourishing in disturbed ecosystems and that perhaps we have passed a tipping point. She fears that overwhelming jellyfish blooms indicate a disturbed ecosystem of oceanic ecology, which will only lead to further devastation of our oceans.
Are Jellies Taking Over the World? Are we headed for global jelly domination? Lucas Brotz and his colleagues at the University of British Columbia are finding that jelly populations appear to be increasing in coastal ecosystems worldwide. They collected information from the past 60 years to map out the changes in global jelly populations.
