Canada: Tiny invasive jellyfish clones blossoming in British Columbia’s warming waters

Some time more than 30 years ago, a single Chinese peach blossom jellyfish made its way into a lake in British Columbia. Exactly how it arrived is not clear, researchers say — perhaps it was in aquarium water — but decades later, thousands of genetic clones of the same organism have been spotted in 34 waterways around the province. Scientists are now trying to understand the impact of the gelatinous invaders, that are about the size of a quarter. Evgeny Pakhomov, a University of British Columbia biological oceanographer studying the phenomenon, said in an interview that the actual numbers of the jellyfish were unknown, but sightings could increase rapidly in coming years due to a warming climate. “This species actually thrives in the water which is more than 27 degrees Celsius. It’s really likes that kind of warm water,” he said, noting they only become observable around 25 degrees Celsius. Pakhomov said the risk was a huge explosion in their numbers — called a jelly bloom — with ...