Science has long been a powerful tool for understanding the natural world. However, recent discoveries have shown that science can also be a source of great terror.
One recent example is the discovery of so-called “jellyfish killers.” These tiny organisms which can be found on every continent, feed on the tiny larvae of the moon jellyfish. The discovery of the killers began when researchers became confused by reports of large numbers of moon jellyfish suddenly disappearing from the seas. It appeared that some unknown factor had killed off their larval population and was leading to a disaster for the already endangered jellyfish. The organisms weren’t discovered until 2004 and the following years saw many research articles describing how the organisms attack moon jellyfish larvae. The fact is that moon jellyfish killers are still relatively unknown to most scientists, and to some the idea of the organisms causing any real harm to the jellyfish population is ridiculous.
For the majority of people, moon jellyfish may seem like a joke, but for many, moon jellyfish are an important part of the ecosystem. As the larvae form part of the diet of many fish and marine mammals, the populations of moon jellyfish are important for the health of marine environments. There is great pressure to control the fish killers are not controlled, they can cause a “moon jellyfish war”, in which they would suddenly destroy the moon jellyfish population. When such a war has occurred, the larvae could disappear from the sea and the moon jellyfish population would crumble, in which case a large part of the marine ecosystem would be destroyed. The fears that such an event could occur can be reduced by taking the following measures:
Avoid eating moon jellyfish.
Limiting human contact with moon jellyfish.
By doing these, the jellyfish killers would be kept at bay and a level of balance would be maintained between the jellyfish killers and the moon jellyfish.
