Jellyfish scourge threatens Israeli swimmers – and electricity

By Paul Goldman, NBC News Producer
6 July 2011 TEL AVIV – During the hot summer months, Israel has always been synonymous with beautiful sandy beaches and swimming in the warm salty waters of the Mediterranean Sea – but not anymore. It’s now a common sight to see scores of dead, gray jellyfish covering the beaches’ white sand while kids poke them with sticks. It’s even more common to see bathers running away from the water with big red sting marks. More than 200 million jellyfish, known here as “Meduzot,” have been attacking Israel, and there is not much anyone can do about it. The jellyfish are an invasive species called Rhopilema Nomadica that originally migrated from the Red Sea. They’re coming here for one reason: They have few natural enemies lurking in these waters. The sea turtle is one such enemy, but massive construction along the Israeli coastline has devastated the turtle nesting habitat, leaving a paradise for the jellyfish. […] Seawater is used to cool the turbines that supply most of the electricity in Israel. “When we suck the water, we also suck the jellyfish,” explained Rafi Nagar, the chief maintenance officer at the Israel Electric Corp. near the town of Hadera. “And if we let them go through the filters, they can cause the plant to shut down, leaving millions of Israelis without electricity.” Nagar has been working 24/7 to combat the enormous number of jellyfish. “It’s a very difficult problem,” he said. “In the last three days, we pulled out 100 tons of jellyfish from our filters.” […]