NATURE: JIANT JELLY JAM PROVES ...

... the Intelligent Designer has a sense of humor. At least 6ft wide, 450lb (200kg) giant jellyfish with countless poisonous tentacles seem to prove this.

... they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place. [...]

Echizen kurage is not an extraterrestrial invader, but a giant jellyfish that is devastating the livelihoods of fishermen in the Sea of Japan. Nomura’s jellyfish, as it is known in English, is the biggest creature of its kind off Japan and for reasons that remain mysterious its numbers have surged in the past few months. [...]

In some places jellyfish density is reported to be a hundred times higher than normal. Worst of all, no one yet understands why. One theory is that global warming is heating up the seawater and encouraging jellyfish breeding.

Actually the monsters are the cause of global warming and are the result of American and French nuclear bomb tests in the South Pacific in the '50s and '60s.

These are mutant jellyfish whose gestation period has been extended to 30 years. These leviathans of the deep remain with their mothers for another 20 years in an ocean bottom nursery before they are unleased upon coasts of man. Their pre-medusoidian waste was responsible for el nino, which caused global warming.

I warn you, don't go near the water tonight! Thanks to TimesOnline for the picture above and for the following facts of interest:

• The most poisonous jellyfish is the Australian sea wasp, or box jellyfish, with enough venom to kill 60 people.
• The largest jellyfish ever found was a lion’s mane, with a bell 2m (7ft) across, and tentacles extending more than 35m
• The notorious Portuguese man o’war is not a jellyfish at all but a collection of different organisms including stinging tentacles
• Jellyfish have both male and female characteristics. A group releases sperm and eggs which mix in the water
• A collection of jellyfish is known as a smack

HT: The Good Reverend via BoingBoing

Asia; el nino; Global warming; Intelligent design; Japan; Nuclear testing; Oceanography; Pacific Ocean; Science