Jellyfish warning?

A number of incredible crop circles have appeared this year, including one that represents a jellyfish, at a time when strange jellyfish-shaped lightning appeared over France, and the world jellyfish population is exploding, crowding out edible ocean fish. Is all this a warning for us?

Massive swarms of jellyfish are transforming many fisheries and tourist destinations into “jellytoriums” that cover hundreds of square miles, endangering the world’s food supply. Areas in the US that are hit by this include Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, and the East Coast. These jellyfish range in size from tiny, peanut-sized to huge jellies (the size of refrigerators) in Japan. The Portuguese Man-of-War, depicted in the crop circle, has tentacles which can grow to be 30 feet long. The causes include pollution, climate change, introductions of non-native species, overfishing and the presence of offshore drilling rigs.

Australian researcher Anthony Richardson says, “Mounting evidence suggests that open-ocean ecosystems can flip from being dominated by fish, to being dominated by jellyfish. This would have lasting ecological, economic and social consequences. We need to start managing the marine environment in a holistic and precautionary way to prevent more examples of what could be termed a ‘jellyfish joyride.'”

Here’s ANOTHER warning: in LiveScience, Jeanna Bryner describes “an eerie red figure [that] flashed across the sky above a thunderstorm near the south coast of France” that was “gone in the blink of an eye.” This was an example of the type of lightning that atmospheric scientists call a “sprite” because it disappears so quickly. These are extremely short flashes of light that occur high above thunderstorms. Spanish researcher Oscar van der Velde recently photographed one from his apartment balcony that looks like

NOTE: This news story, previously published on our old site, will have any links removed.