I was just bumping around the internet, looking at my favorite news sites, when I saw an interesting article written by Reuters reporter Maggie Fox and reported on Yahoo! News.  It seems that larger than normal jellyfish blooms are ruining lots of vacations and causing pain and discomfort for swimmers worldwide.  The text from Yahoo! News follows.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Huge swarms of stinging jellyfish and similar slimy animals are ruining beaches in Hawaii, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, Australia and elsewhere, U.S. researchers reported on Friday.

The report says 150 million people are exposed to jellyfish globally every year, with 500,000 people stung in the Chesapeake Bay, off the U.S. Atlantic Coast, alone.

Another 200,000 are stung every year in Florida, and 10,000 are stung in Australia by the deadly Portuguese man-of-war, according to the report, a broad review of jellyfish research.

The report, available on the Internet at http://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/index.jsp, says the Black Sea’s fishing and tourism industries have lost $350 million because of a proliferation of comb jelly fish.

The report says more than 1,000 fist-sized comb jellies can be found in a cubic yard (meter) of Black Sea water during a bloom.

They eat the eggs of fish and compete with them for food, wiping out the livelihoods of fishermen, according to the report.

And it says a third of the total weight of all life in California’s Monterey Bay is made up of jellyfish.

Human activities that could be making things nice for jellyfish include pollution, climate change, introductions of non-native species, overfishing and building artificial structures such as oil and gas rigs.

Creatures called salps cover up to 38,600 square miles (100,000 sq km) of the North Atlantic New York Bight, but researchers quoted in the report said this one may be a natural cycle. in a regular phenomenon called the

“There is clear, clean evidence that certain types of human-caused environmental stresses are triggering jellyfish swarms in some locations,” William Hamner of the University of California Los Angeles says in the report.

These include pollution-induced “dead zones”, higher water temperatures and the spread of alien jellyfish species by shipping.

Read Entire Article on Yahoo! News - Jellyfish Explosion

Jellyfish stings are certainly painful.  Over the past 5 years, we have seen a gigantic growth in the sales of various products to prevent jellyfish stings or to mitigate the pain and misery once they occur.  Products such as Safe Sea Jellyfish Protectant suntan lotion, Mitigator Jelly Fish Extreme Scrub, and Sting Zapper first aid medication have been very popular products on our website.  Apparently, the news is out and it appears to be getting worse.  Jellyfish stings hurt!

Phil Ellis

Protect Yourself from Jellyfish with DiveSports.com

This is the morning after.  Each year, we have our one-day Christmas Party and Sale.  Again, this year, we had hundreds of customers join us for some good food, lots of great conversation with friends and other divers, and some absolutely great deals.  It was clear that the poor economic situation took a toll on the level of shopping this year, but everyone had a good time and we all got to spend some time with friends.

We have lots of people that help us pull this event off every year.  As always, I am extremely thankful for their help.  This year, two of our good friends and customers went way beyond the call of duty.  Ann and Kathy provided some great food and I am very thankful for this contribution.  Things like this remind me that even in business, it is not all business.  We can’t get by without friends.

Thanks to everyone who came by and enjoyed the fun and food.  Thanks to those who took advantage of the great sale prices.  Thanks to everyone who has helped us make it through another year.  We look forward to diving with all of you next year.

Phil Ellis

DiveSports.com - Your Local Scuba Store, No Matter Where You Live!