The Blob that Ate the Black Sea

They called it "the blob that ate the
Black Sea." And now the world’s most dangerous American biological
export — a jellyfish about the size of a man’s hand — has moved east
and is devouring the Caspian Sea.

This ecological monster, a voracious jellyfish called Mnemiopsis leidyi, was
accidentally transported from the backwaters of the US eastern seaboard two decades
ago in the hull of a ship. When the ship emptied its ballast water into the Black
Sea, the jellyfish began its rampage.

Last month, a five-nation group of scientists decided that the best hope for
saving the Caspian Sea’s caviar and restoring the Black Sea’s anchovies lies
with yet another gelatinous stowaway. For three years beginning later this year,
Iranian researchers will release small numbers of specially bred predator jellyfish
named Beroe ovata along the coastline of the Caspian Sea, hoping they will consume
their troublesome cousins and then die off.

Sounds risky to us. The Dowbrigade has had a number
of
embarassing
run-ins with both jellyfish and Iranians, and the combination
"Prediator Jellyfish" could be dangerous.Is Tom Ridge aware of what is
going on?

from The Boston
Globe