Want some peanut butter with that jellyfish? - Oceana USA
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June 18, 2007

Want some peanut butter with that jellyfish?

Just in time for the summer vacation season, the jellies are back, and their numbers are as big as ever.

Researchers aboard Oceana’s Ranger have already spotted flocks of these slimy, easy going invertebrates drifting with the currents. A lack of coastal rain water running into the ocean has eliminated the usual buffer that keeps jellies away from swimming beaches.A decline in natural predators, such as sea turtles and tuna fish, not to mention smaller fish species that compete with jellyfish for food, due to overfishing has allowed the gooey menace to multiply exponentially.

Spanish authorities have proposed a hotline that volunteer boaters and anglers may call upon sighting mass quantities of jellyfish, but here at Oceana we know that’s just skimming the surface of the problem.