National Post: The global jellyfish population is soaring, and it’s bad news for just about everyone.

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Warning, beach bums and fishermen: Jellyfish populations the world over are exploding, according to five University of British Columbia scientists in a report published this month in the journal Hydrobiologia. More jellyfish are coming and that’s cause for alarm.

Nice to watch at a distance, perhaps, but the undulating, translucent creatures are notorious for their stings, which can be lethal. Countless ocean-side holidays have been ruined thanks to unwelcome encounters with nettlesome jellyfish clusters, or blooms.


They also wreak havoc by choking seawater intake valves and drainpipes, and clogging fishermen’s nets. “Jellies” have even been known to capsize fishing boats, says Lucas Brotz, a UBC doctoral student and lead author of the new study. Really, who needs these invaders? They aren’t even fish, after all.

Mr. Brotz and his UBC colleagues examined data and anecdotal evidence going back 60 years. They report that jellyfish populations are on the rise almost everywhere, most acutely in areas with heavy concentrations of human activity. Coastal Europe and Asia and the Black Sea seem hardest hit by jellyfish proliferations; these include invasive, exotic species. According to the UBC study, Antarctica has also been swarmed.

Most of North America’s coastlines have been spared the recent outbreak, but that could change with fluctuating conditions in oceans surrounding the continent.