02 November 2009

Trawler sunk by giant jellyfish

Ach, when one sees that sort of newspaper headline in anything outside of, say the late Weekly World News, one is almost certainly going to be disappointed. I had a mental picture of a huge Kraken-like coelenterate attacking a factory ship-sized vessel and dissolving the crew...

Well not quite, the vessel was a ten ton fishing boat but the jellyfish were damned large, if not out and out behemoths!

According to the Telegraph, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized `as its crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish.


The jellyfish is one of the largest jellyfish in the world, growing up to two metres in diameter and weighing up to 200kg. Not much is known about Nomura's jellyfish, but its population can vary enormously each year. Last year had virtually no sightings of the jellyfish but this year the waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures.

To end this sort of shaggy coelenterate story, The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but they were rescued by another trawler, so all’s well that ends well...

19 comments:

Dragonstar said...

Mad!

Stephanie, Mama Dramatist said...

It'd take a lot of peeing to reduce a sting from that thing!

Welshcakes Limoncello said...

Now that's scary! Sicily had an invasion of big jellyfish this summer.

Claude said...

A bit of a sea monster! Wouldn't want to see one face to face...

Knatolee said...

Mess not with the giant jellyfish!

That's some story. Glad the crew survived.

jams o donnell said...

Thanks everyone... I have a thing about monsters from the deep!

Claude said...

Please, don't ever go swimming in deep water, Jams. Monsters (everywhere) have a way of knowing where their friends are. They'll come and get you. It's lonely down there...

James Higham said...

Not sure if I fancy meeting one of them.

jams o donnell said...

I wouldn't either James!

Very lonely, very dark and very cold Claudia!

CherryPie said...

That is an impressive Jellyfish!!

jams o donnell said...

It is really impressive eh?

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I wonder what it tastes like. Never been in Japan or seen a jellyfish dish in a Japanese restaurant.

jams o donnell said...

I can;t imagine either Snoopy, with teh stings it may be a bit tangy!

Dora said...

Wa! This is a huge one!!!

Crow said...

I've read more jellyfish are swarming the shores of the world because the waters are warming and pollution attracts the food they like to eat.

Anonymous said...

Do you mean to tell me they weren't eaten alive!? What kind of MSM story is that?

jams o donnell said...

It is huge, eh DOra?

I think that is probably the case Crow

I know Aileni, it could have doen with gore and entrails.. perhaps that's why it wasn't in the Sun!

Amanda Moore said...

I would never want to face that thing in the ocean, glad to know the fishermen came out OK in the whole thing!

jams o donnell said...

Seriously I'm glad too