Hope You Like Eating Jellyfish, As They May Be The Only Fish Left In The Ocean

As we pollute the air and water of our planet, we risk driving a million species extinct. This includes the fish in our oceans, one of our biggest food sources. So if the fish do die out, we hope you like eating jellyfish, because there'll be a lot of them around.

In May, the UN report that 1 million species are facing extinction thanks to us, "many within decades, more than ever before in human history." More recently, another report projected that, if climate change doesn't stop, the world's fish biomass could decrease by up to 25% by 2100.

Images courtesy: Reuters

Now jellyfish have been around for an estimated 550 million years. The thing is, thanks to all the polluting of the planet we're doing, the jellyfish are fine even as other species are dying.

In fact, they're flourishing so much that they could eventually crowd all other marine life out of the oceans.

And that's not just bad for the fishing trade and tourism in coastal regions. Jellyfish have in the past also clogged cooling systems of nuclear power plants. Worst of all though, having so many of them in excess disrupts the natural food chains of the ocean. Their excess messes with their own ecosystem, as well as others when they shift to non-native regions seeking living space

Lucas Brotz, a jellyfish scientist at the University of British Columbia, has studied marine ecosystems across the world. He's found that jellyfish populations have seen a 62 percent increase in some communities and decreases of only 7 percent. "There is high confidence and good data to support that jellyfish blooms are increasing," Brotz says.

That's because jellyfish have developed hardy survival mechanisms, and are capable of tolerating much higher temperatures than other marine life. That means, with even normally colder waters growing warmer, these jellyfish are spreading in an unprecedented fashion. They can also breed in water with very little oxygen and that's heavily polluted. And they don't die when things get really bad either. Instead they just sort of go into hibernation.

When they breed, each jellyfish can release tens of thousands of eggs. In fact, it's so bad that scientists are warning we might have to take drastic steps to keep them in control. Many organisations around the world are looking at ways to incentivize finding alternative uses for these wispy critters. One of them often suggested is for people to simply eat them.

And jellyfish are technically edible, they've been eaten in China for centuries. Cannonball jellies are particularly sought after in the region, which are dehydrated into something akin to al dente pasta. They're most often turned into salads or soups, or put together with sliced meats and vegetables.

Other startups are even looking at using jellyfish anatomy in products like diapers and sanitary pads, due to their flesh being highly absorbent.

There are quite a few ideas being tossed around, but one thought is consistent behind all of them. We can figure out how to use and control jellyfish, but a better solution would be a cure for the global warming and pollution that are letting them over-breed in the first place.