giant jelly fish story

[NicoleRussell]

Japan grapples with invasion of giant jellyfish
19 Jan 2006 07:17:43 GMT

Source: Reuters

Japanese fishermen draw up a fishing net full of Echizen kurage, or Nomura's
jellyfish, off the shores of Awashimaura, northern Japan, in this September
26, 2003 file photo. The slimy sea creature up to two metres in diameter and
weighing up to 200 kg has Japan's fishing industry in the grip of its
poisonous tentacles, as vast numbers have appeared along the country's
coasts since August, clogging and ripping fishing nets and forcing fishermen
to spend hours hacking them apart before bringing home their reduced
catches. Picture taken


September 26, 2003.
REUTERS/HO PREVIOUS | NEXTJapanese fishermen draw up a fishing net full of
Echizen kurage, or Nomura's jellyfish, off the shores of Awashimaura,
northern Japan, in this September 26, 2003 file photo. The slimy sea
creature up to two metres in diameter and weighing up to 200 kg has Japan's
fishing industry in the grip of its poisonous tentacles, as vast numbers
have appeared along the country's coasts since August, clogging and ripping
fishing nets and forcing fishermen to spend hours hacking them apart before
bringing home their reduced catches. Picture taken September 26, 2003. FOR
EDITORIAL USE ONLY
REUTERS/HO PREVIOUS | NEXTEchizen kurage, or Nomura's jellyfish, are caught
in a fishing net off the shores of Awashimaura, northern Japan, in this
September 26, 2003 file photo. The slimy sea creature up to two metres in
diameter and weighing up to 200 kg has Japan's fishing industry in the grip
of its poisonous tentacles, as vast numbers have appeared along the
country's coasts since August, clogging and ripping fishing nets and forcing
fishermen to spend hours hacking them apart before bringing home their
reduced catches. Picture taken September 26, 2003. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY
REUTERS/HO By Isabel Reynolds

TOKYO, Jan 19 (Reuters) - A slimy jellyfish weighing as much as a sumo
wrestler has Japan's fishing industry in the grip of its poisonous
tentacles.

Vast numbers of Echizen kurage, or Nomura's jellyfish, have appeared around
Japan's coast since July, clogging and ripping fishing nets and forcing
fishermen to spend hours hacking them apart before bringing home their
reduced catches.

Representatives of fishing communities around the country gathered in Tokyo
on Thursday, hoping to thrash out solutions to a pest that has spread from
the Japan Sea to the Pacific coast.

"It's a terrible problem. They're like aliens," Noriyuki Kani of the
fisheries federation in Toyama, northwest of Tokyo, told Reuters ahead of
the conference.

There are no official figures on the size of the problem, but Kani says the
financial losses are obvious.

"If your nets are full of jellyfish, of course there is no space for fish,"
he said.

Cutting up and disposing of the giants can turn a three-hour fishing trip
into a 10-hour marathon, while valuable fish are poisoned or crushed under
the weight of the unwanted catch.

And what a catch. One Echizen kurage can be up to 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) in
diameter and weigh up to 200 kg (440 lb).

Despite their size, the invertebrates aren't toxic enough to cause serious
harm to humans, but fishermen often wear goggles and protective clothing to
avoid stings when dealing with them.

Much about the jellyfish, the largest variety found in the Sea of Japan,
remains a mystery, according to Hitoshi Iizumi of the Seikai National
Fisheries Research Institute in Niigata.

Researchers have suggested they drift to Japan on currents after reproducing
in South Korean or Chinese waters, a theory that Japan wants to investigate
with the other two nations.

But with relations between Japan and its nearest neighbours at a low ebb,
Tokyo is anxious to avoid apportioning blame.

"We have a neutral stance," said Yukihiko Sakamoto of the National Fisheries
Agency, which organised Thursday's conference.

CULINARY SOLUTION?

"It doesn't matter whether the jellyfish come from South Korean waters or
Japanese waters. We just want to do something to minimise the damage to the
fishing industry," he said.

One-off spikes in population have occurred in the past, notably in 1958, but
consecutive outbreaks in 2002 and 2003 prompted the government to seek
reasons and solutions.

Scientists have suggested global warming might be a factor.

Some fishermen have had some success in combating the intruders by
introducing guide nets with larger than usual holes.

Jellyfish are simply swept through the holes by water currents, while other
fish tend to notice the nets and swim alongside them, eventually being
trapped in the fishing nets.

"By altering the way we fish, we have probably secured 80 to 90 percent of
our normal catch," said fisherman Masatoshi Kuruma, who said he has in the
past found up to two or three thousand jellyfish in his nets off Nyuzenmachi
in Toyama prefecture.

Officials at Thursday's conference are also set to propose a forecasting
system that would allow fishermen to prepare for the next onslaught of the
jumbo jellyfish.

South Korean fishermen have been suffering similar woes but China, where
giant jellyfish are a delicacy often served dried and dressed with sesame
oil, does not seem to have registered the outbreak as a major problem,
Japanese officials said.

Seaside communities in Japan have tried to capitalise on the menace by
developing novel jellyfish dishes from tofu to icecream, but for some reason
the recipes have failed to take off.

Participants at Thursday's conference said they had experimented with
feeding the jellyfish to farmed crabs and using them as fertiliser.