Jellyfish ‘not taking over the world’

They can stop the world’s biggest warships, cripple power stations and kill humans with a single sting but jellyfish are not about to take over the world and turn our oceans to slime, as some reports have claimed. A team of international marine scientists – including an Australian – said they found no hard evidence to support claims that jellyfish numbers are increasing worldwide at an alarming rate. Despite widespread media reports of such claims, the lack of a comprehensive database of jellyfish numbers had prevented a reliable scientific assessment of global trends.

Prof Carlos Duarte, Director, Oceans Institute, The University of Western Australia

BioScience; http://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201202024308/research/jedi-scientists-repel-jellyfish-invasion