Jellyfish blooms.. are seen as a signal that the oceans have been overwarmed... discussed as if they had the potential to culminate in ecophagy, the devouring of an ecosystem in gross. The vision—is of the planet’s oceans transformed into something like an aspic terrine …
In Spineless: The Science of
Jellyfish and the Art of Growing a Backbone, Juli Berwald embarks on a
mission that leads her to challenge the way blooms are popularly characterized...
Perhaps the most complex issue Berwald takes on
is jellyfish blackouts… electrical outages caused by jellyfish sucked into the
intake pipes and cooling systems of coal-fired and nuclear power stations… The
significance of such damage will only increase as on-land freshwater resources
degrade and electricity demand grows. In cities experiencing greater
temperature extremes, blackouts expose particularly consequential
frailties—refrigeration, air-conditioning and heating, and transportation all
matter more in hard weather…
Berwald travels to the Mar Menor lagoon which had become so jellified in 2002 that “you couldn’t drive a boat through the water.”
... after finishing
Spineless, I caught the train to the Sea Life Aquarium to see Britain’s
feted “largest jellyfish experience,” in the “Ocean Invaders” exhibit...
kids were elbowing one another aside for a... wall cavity emitting purple light and draped with plastic tentacles... to experience a pretend jellyfish sting .
kids were elbowing one another aside for a... wall cavity emitting purple light and draped with plastic tentacles... to experience a pretend jellyfish sting .
A motion sensor set off
the sounds of electric shock, zzz, zzz, and then the kids fell all over
the floor, beating their fists on their ribs. One boy snapped his incisors with such force I
thought he might throw sparks. “No teeth!” he screamed. “No teeth! How does it
eat?!”
