These Jellyfish Are Big Enough to Sink Boats | Monster Jellyfish | Full Documentary

The Nomura jellyfish, one of the largest in the world. They can grow to over two meters wide and weigh more than 200 kilograms. Drifting through the ocean since before the dinosaurs, without blood, bones or a brain. Billions are now heading into Japanese waters. Their giant bodies gracefully float through the oceans. But these jellyfish devastate ecosystems and they're lethal to the local fishing industry. No one knows why Nomura blooms are increasing. Is it global warming or man-made pollution? Swarms that happened every four decades now strike nearly every year. Can science prevent jellyfish from taking over the oceans? It's very difficult to stop this jellyfish. They can survive forever. A 10-ton fishing trawler, the Daisan Shinshamaru, leaves harbor bound for the Pacific Ocean. Its crew of three prepares to drop the net for what seems like a normal fishing day. After several hours, they begin to pull in the net. Strangely, today's catch feels much heavier than normal. The crew senses that something is wrong. Their net is full of poisonous giant Nomura jellyfish. The net opens, the massive catch drops. Thousands of pounds of jellyfish hit the deck, pitching the boat violently, throwing the crew overboard and capsizing the trawler. Giant jellyfish blooms used to occur only once every 40 years. But in 2002, something changed. Millions of giant Nomura jellyfish began to wash up on Japan's shores, ruining fish catches and causing millions of dollars of damage. But why would a plague that happened only once every 40 years suddenly start appearing annually? And it's not just here. In the summer of 2006, over 30,000 people were stung by a swarm of Mediterranean jellyfish. In Ireland in 2007, an enormous bloom of Mauve Stinger jellyfish covering 10 square miles wiped out 100,000 salmon. In New York in 2008, dozens of athletes competing in a triathlon were stung by hordes of jellyfish in the Hudson River. The past several decades have seen worldwide jellyfish populations explode globally, sparking an alarming increase in attacks. How can it be stopped? Jellyfish are some of the most unique creatures to ever live. Thousands of jellyfish species roam our oceans. With no central nervous system, no spine and no brain, it's remarkable they're able to exist at all. Over 500 million years old, incredible survivors from a bygone age. But nearly 100 years ago, man discovered one of the largest of them all, the Nomura. With an adult lifespan of under a year, it needs to reach maturity as quickly as possible. Eight arms containing hundreds of minute mouths gorge non-stop on microorganisms called zooplankton. Able only to control their vertical movements, the Nomura travels at the mercy of the ocean's currents. They follow zooplankton close to the ocean surface during the day, and at night when the zooplankton descends, the jellyfish move with them. Moving up to 10 kilometers a day, this group of jellyfish start their winding 1200 kilometer journey to Japan's coastline. And this is where their journey began, near the mouth of the Yangtze River. It's here that the conditions are perfect for these mini monsters to breed. Low salt levels and a high population of zooplankton combine to provide an ideal nursery for baby jellyfish. A single giant Nomura jellyfish has over a billion eggs. Minute fertilized larvae attach themselves to the sea floor. The larvae then matures into a polyp, growing small feeding tentacles to catch passing plankton. What happens next is incredible. The polyps move in a walking motion, leaving a trail of tissue in its path. This tissue develops into more polyps and multiplies. The population explodes into trillions. They lie on the ocean floor, able to lie dormant for decades, alive but waiting, until a precise change in sea conditions triggers a reaction. Saucer-like segments break off to form tiny jellyfish. Billions of Nomura gather in blooms. Mass bloomings like this have only been recorded nine previous times, and this year's could be the biggest ever. It's moving towards the Japanese coastline almost a month earlier than usual. One of the first locations adult Nomuras reach is here on Japan's Oki Island. Deep sea currents create a funnel pushing billions of jellyfish past the island, making this one of Japan's first lines of defense. Professor Shinichi Ue is the world's foremost Nomura jellyfish scientist. It's the perfect time to study this year's first arrivals. This year we have enormous bloom of this jellyfish and we'd like to prevent this blooming by examining this kind of reproductive biology. He needs to capture a male and female jellyfish to collect sperm and eggs from their sex organs called gonads. They can then artificially reproduce in Nomura in the lab. They move slowly, but their massive weight makes them tough to catch. The Nomura's venom is not lethal like some jellyfish, but it does leave a nasty scar. Ue needs to artificially breed as many as possible to find out the conditions that provoke them to spawn. They first need to cut off samples of the jellyfish to find out its gender. Only a slight difference in the color of the jellyfish gonads tells them whether it is a male or a female. Reproductive potential of this jellyfish is just enormous. Male jellyfish release trillions of sperm which swim into a female stomach cavity to fertilize the eggs. Will these samples help them understand why these mysterious blooms are happening? In his lab professor Ue is researching how these jellyfish grow so large. These five baby Nomuras have just turned one month old. They need to be fed several liters of zooplankton. These jellyfish become very large, but their food is very tiny. Unlike some jellyfish that actively hunt their prey, the Nomura uses another technique. As they swim, tiny zooplankton brush against their tentacles, causing minute venomous barbs to strike out and stun their prey. Then the Nomura's hundreds of tiny mouths vacuum up everything in their midst. This species has a very small mouth. The diameter is just one millimeter. So only the small zooplankton can go in. A 100 kilogram jellyfish can filter an Olympic swimming pool full of zooplankton in a single day. This evolutionary adaptation has given them a unique advantage. The availability of the zooplankton is just everywhere. They use that strategy rather than attacking a large prey. In just six months, this tiny jellyfish will gorge its way to becoming a massive adult, growing up to 10% each day. Once born, the Nomura has a 12-month life cycle and indeterminate growth. During their life, as long as there is food, they will never stop growing. This amazing ability to grow so large so fast separates them from nearly every other jellyfish in the ocean. The Nomura's stomach, reproductive organs, and eight light-detecting eyes are shielded by this giant protective bell. Beneath the bell hang eight thick arms, surrounded by hundreds of tentacles, covered with a loose network of nerves, reacting to touch instantly with a sting. The Japanese are the largest consumers of fish in the world. The fishing industry is protected, both financially and culturally. But it's now under threat. 90% of all large fish have disappeared from the world's oceans. These yellowtail tuna, once common, are now in danger. Less fish means less income for a desperate fishing industry. Here, they feel the decline the most. Echizen Town in Wakasa Bay is home to one of Japan's oldest fishing communities. For the past few years, the sea off this coastline has been the epicenter of the Nomura jellyfish problem. Toshio Isobe has been fishing for 40 years. Things have never been this bad. Before the fishing season begins, Isobe visits a Shinto Buddhist temple. It's typhoon season. The strong waves are pushing the jellyfish even faster to shore. The fishermen must now risk the typhoons to catch fish before the swarms arrive. If the jellyfish hit soon, Isobe and his friends' livelihoods will be ruined. I hope we can manage to catch some fish. Isobe and his crew have heard reports from the Japanese Fisheries Department that the blooms this year could be the biggest ever. The scale of the bloom has prompted the government to deploy three research ships to the Sea of Japan. Their mission is to stay one step ahead of these massive sea creatures and to raise the alarm when they move close to shore. Their method is low-tech. Spotters on the deck look for large groups of jellyfish. The information is sent to fishing fleets across the country. Once a bloom is spotted and logged, the ship's kill nets are deployed. Huge nets with metal cables are dragged behind the vessel, shredding the jellyfish, leaving the remains to float to the ocean floor. But it comes at a price. As they are shredded, the Nomura release all their eggs and sperm to ensure the continued survival of the species. Billions of polyps will now remain lying dormant on Japan's seabed, waiting for the right conditions to bloom again. Should that happen, Japan would become a second country for the Nomura to breed, and the problem could escalate. The fishermen's worst fears are confirmed by reports coming from sea. The blooms are reaching record numbers, with strong currents pushing them closer and closer. Less than seven weeks in Japanese waters, they have already covered nearly 25% of the coastline. And this is where they're heading. Echizen, central Japan. Historically, these waters have provided some of Japan's finest seafood. So good, it was sent to Japan's imperial court. But this fishing town has a long bitter history with the Nomura. In 1921, the jellyfish was first discovered here, and the Japanese named it the Echizen jellyfish. Jellyfish invasions have brought broken nets, lost incomes, and closed beaches. But in 1972, things got worse. Swarms of jellyfish infiltrated Japan's waters. The government flew in scientist Toru Yasuda to help. His memories remain vivid. Waves of jellyfish would soon strike at the heart of Japan's industrial power plants. Thousands of jellyfish were sucked into the plant's underwater cooling system, a design flaw of mega proportions. But the modern designers have not protected the plant against jellyfish. While the plant was shut down, experts started to figure out if this could ever happen again. Since records began, the giant Nomura blooms appeared only every 40 years. But since 2002, the pattern of blooms has changed radically. Now, it's nearly every year. And it's the nation's fishermen that suffer most. Reports from the FRA are saying the giant jellyfish are heading towards the coastline. Toshio Isobe and his crew head out to check their nets, not knowing if the giant Nomura bloom has reached them yet. Isobe starts the motor. As the net comes in, it's not fish, but the giant Nomura. This net would normally pull in thousands of kilos of fish. The fish they do catch are stunned and poisoned. Those that survive will fetch only 30% of their true value. The crew is helpless. All they can do is spend hours trying to separate the jellyfish from the meager catch of fish. Nomura blooms eat so much zooplankton, they shock every ecosystem they pass through, decimating fish populations in their wake. Professor Ue has come here for the first time, hoping to find out from fishermen just how big this year's bloom really is. Ue is keen to find out from Isobe just how big and how many there are this year. It's 3 a.m. The seas have calmed, giving Isobe and his crew a brief opportunity to try and catch some fish. Ue hopes to catch a jellyfish to understand why there are so many this year. As the nets come in, the scale of this devastating jellyfish bloom becomes clear. This year seems to be the biggest ever. A sea of orange. Isobe believes the jellyfish are taking over the oceans. Professor Ue needs to measure the jellyfish to compare their size with past years. Ue has a theory about why there are so many jellyfish this year. With this many competing for food, they haven't been able to grow as large. This bloom is ruining Isobe and his crew's livelihood. It's one of the worst catches on record, less than 10 kilos of fish. You can't catch jellyfish, but you can't catch fish. In other words, it's a waste of money. This is the amount we caught today. It's a pathetic amount. If this is the amount, it's not just about the fish. If the waves of jellyfish continue, Isobe and his crew will be forced to stop fishing completely. Their last hope is that Professor Ue can find a way to stop these jellyfish before it's too late. To find a way to stop the giant namura from breeding, Professor Ue needs to find a weakness in their life cycle that can be exploited. It is essential to know the life cycle of this species. The fertilization is just the beginning. Then we can just approach how to counter this phenomenon. If Professor Ue can artificially rear namura polyps, he may be able to find a way to limit future blooms. The polyp stage is a very important stage to regulate the population of this jellyfish. So I think we have to control this polymethic stage. To do that, Ue first has to artificially inseminate microscopic jellyfish eggs. Here I take the gonad, which is kept in the dark. So I will remove the lid for the eggs to be exposed to the light. Ue has realized that light is one catalyst. Light is just a trigger for the spawning. And in 60 to 90 minutes later, the egg will just release. This one jellyfish has produced millions of tiny eggs, only visible under a microscope. After the eggs are fertilized, they turn into larvae, known as planulae. Tiny hairs called cilia coat the larvae, enabling them to move. In their natural environment, they will then slowly sink to the ocean floor, and start to develop into the most important stage, the polyp. The most difficult thing is just to rear the newly attached polyp, which is so small. Growing these polyps in the lab takes one week, feeding them each day with a special diet of zooplankton. Ue cannot get them to fully develop. He increases the water temperature to simulate rising sea temperatures. The polyp's reproductive rate is higher at higher temperatures. That means that temperature elevation just accelerates the polyp's reproductive rate. It works. A baby jellyfish is born. It's really amazing. We realize that global warming is one of the factors to cause the jellyfish to bloom. Could global warming be the cause of jellyfish populations exploding all over the world? The answer why the Nomura has bred more than ever this year may be found in China. In Shanghai, China's largest city, the population has jumped by 3 million people in the last decade. Such rapid development is not without side effects. It's here, offshore, that recent changes in the ocean's conditions have become a focal point for Nomura research. Professor Cheng Jiahua is part of a team investigating reasons for the population explosion. Massive changes have altered the ecosystem along the Chinese coastline. 2009 saw the world's ocean's hottest summer on record, nearly a 2% increase on last century's average. These temperature changes, combined with massive overfishing and pollution, has led to lower oxygen levels, creating what scientists call a dead zone. Few species can survive in these toxic zones, but the sewage and runoff provide nutrients for zooplankton, thereby increasing jellyfish food. The waters off China's coast are just one example of a dead zone. Worldwide, the number of dead zones is almost doubling every decade. From Asia, to Europe, to the Americas, with over 400 of these zones. No ocean or continent is spared. Jellyfish thrive in these dead zones, leading to species now being found in places they have never been seen before. If conditions don't change, dead zones will increase globally, and jellyfish blooms could grow both in numbers and in size. But in China, they have created their own local solution to the Nomura problem. We can use jellyfish as food, so that we can improve the quality of our food, and meet the needs of the people. Jellyfish specialty shops are a staple of fish markets across China's lengthy coastline. Low in fat, cholesterol and calories, jellyfish have been eaten here for thousands of years. The rise in jellyfish blooms is welcomed by some. Could eating the Nomura help solve Japan's problems? Billions of Nomura jellyfish are now in Japanese waters. In less than three months, they have made it to the northern tip of the country, covering nearly 50% of the coastline. Toshio Isobe and his crew are making one last attempt to fish. Things have become so desperate, the local government has sent Kaneo Fukuda to try and help solve their problem. Fukuda has never seen anything like this. Even though the Japanese are huge consumers of seafood, this is one catch they just won't eat. Fukuda hopes to change that. Fukuda is taking four Nomura jellyfish to try to create a set of recipes with a Japanese palate. If these recipes become popular, it could help Isobe turn his catch into a profit. If Fukuda's plan doesn't work, this could be one of the last catches of the season. These fishermen will have no income for the rest of the year. And it's not just here. Hundreds of thousands of fishermen all over Japan depend on the ocean's catch. But Isobe isn't optimistic that eating them is the solution. The only part of the jellyfish that is edible is the head. This alum powder will force the water out of the jellyfish skin. Only when it's dry can it be used for cooking. It's a race against time. In three days, Fukuda will present a menu of jellyfish dishes at Tokyo's biggest fish buyers' convention. If he can create a nationwide craze, it may be able to help save Echizen Town and fishermen all over Japan. Jellyfish with sesame oil and salt is his most hopeful dish. He is ready to take it to the commercial buyers in Tokyo. Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market. 65,000 employees sell more than 2,000 tons of seafood. More fish than anywhere else in the world. But one creature is missing from the seafood smorgasbord. Kaneo Fukuda wants to see if anyone is selling jellyfish here. If we don't have a place like this, it's going to be a disaster. But at the annual seafood exhibition, Fukuda gets his big chance. His sales pitch for today, if you can't beat them, eat them. I feel frustrated. I want to make really good food and make it popular. Throughout the day, thousands of buyers will flock here, looking for the next trendy seafood dish. This is my first time. It's my first time in the world. It can be shabu-shabu or sashimi. It's better than I expected. It tastes good. The texture is good. It doesn't look bad either. I was a little scared. I think it would be interesting if there was a way to eat it. Despite some positive feedback, Fukuda has sold none of his product today. It seems the Japanese consumers are not yet ready to start eating the Nomura. There could be one solution to the giant Nomura jellyfish problem from the sea itself. Shogo Arai is a marine environmental researcher. Arai believes that overfishing is one of the main reasons for giant jellyfish booms, and equilibrium needs to be brought back to the seas. His idea, to create artificial reefs to bring back important species lost from Japanese waters, like the filefish. They find the Nomura the perfect snack. By increasing the number of fish and restoring the ecological balance, we can get rid of jellyfish. Arai has installed a series of 50 man-made reefs on the ocean floor. These reefs attract filefish, which help combat the jellyfish. The filefish is a small tapered snout with specialized incisor teeth, making it the perfect mouth to feed on the jellyfish tentacles. Their thick, rough skin prevents them from being stung by the jellyfish poison. To test his theory, Arai nets the biggest Nomura he can find. He will attach it to one of his reefs. Now all he has to do is wait for the fish to arrive. They quickly swarm, nibbling away at the Nomura's tentacles. Could fish be the answer? Replenishing fish stocks and restoring equilibrium to the ocean is vital not just to combat jellyfish blooms here, but all over the world. But with numbers in the billions, too many to even count, this year is the worst ever. Nearly twice as many jellyfish than ever before. It's been four months since they arrived, and they have made it to the Pacific Ocean. Covering nearly 80% of the island, they have put a virtual stranglehold on the entire coastline. The coming months will see them die out, and give rise to next year's giants. The Echizen fisherman's nightmare has come true. Isobe and his friends have given up. With their fishing season destroyed by the jellyfish, they have pulled their boats ashore. At 65, Toshio Isobe might never work again. When you're angry, life doesn't change. It's just a matter of getting over it. Kaneo Fukuda believes in his product, the giant Nomura jellyfish. I will do my best to make the Japanese eat this Echizen jellyfish. Cooking is not enough. Professor Yasuda fears the worst is yet to come. I'm very worried. If the jellyfish come to the Japan Coast every year, the Japan Coast might become the second worst place. If the Nomura adapts to the Japanese sea conditions, Japan will no longer be their destination, but their breeding ground. If this happens, the problem could become irreversible. Japan could be a tipping point. If they can adapt and bloom here, then what other oceans could support them next? It's a global phenomenon that is seeing our oceans taken over by jellyfish. Professor Ue has mastered the secrets of the Nomura's breeding cycle, but he alone cannot combat changing sea conditions that are responsible for these rising blooms. This year is the worst ever. The jellyfish is a really primitive animal. They have a very flexible life cycle, so that they can survive forever. Professor Ue believes this is a global problem, and that unless we can slow down climate change, jellyfish blooms will continue to grow, and their oceanic range will expand. I'm afraid that the ocean will be full of jellyfish if the environmental condition is the same. We do not have the immediate answer. But we human race are smart enough to find a way to solve this problem. Has climate change gone too far, or could the world's scientific community work together to stop jellyfish taking over the oceans?