Billions of jellyfish wipe out N. Irish salmon farm (AP/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) -- The only salmon farm in Northern Ireland has lost its entire population of more than 100,000 fish, worth $2 million, to a spectacular jellyfish attack, its owners said Wednesday.

The Northern Salmon Co. Ltd. said billions of jellyfish -- in a dense pack of about 10 square miles and 35 feet deep -- overwhelmed the fish last week in two net pens about a mile off the coast of the Glens of Antrim, north of Belfast.

Managing director John Russell said the company's dozen workers tried to rescue the salmon, but their three boats struggled for hours to push their way through the mass of jellyfish. All the fish were dead or dying from stings and stress by the time the boats reached the pens, he said.

Russell, who previously worked at Scottish salmon farms and took the Northern Ireland job just three days before the attack, said he had never seen anything like it in 30 years in the business.

"It was unprecedented, absolutely amazing. The sea was red with these jellyfish and there was nothing we could do about it, absolutely nothing," he said.
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more: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/11/21/salmon.jellyfish.ap/index.html

Yes, folks, global warming is responsible:

"Heat Misers

Jellyfish will actually thrive in warmer oceans—bad news for dozens of fish species, says biologist Martin Attrill of the University of Plymouth in England. Attrill has analyzed 50 years' worth of data from the North Sea and found that jellyfish are more prevalent in warm-water years. As seas continue to heat up, this could pose trouble for cod, salmon and other commercial fish: Jellyfish not only outcompete fish larvae for food but eat them too."

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/19b1a5353f2a1110vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

Jeez, are scientists prescient, or what? :eyes: