by Gregory McNamee

The last thing Australia needs is something venomous, given all the various death-dealing sea snakes, worms, serpents, and insects the continent harbors—to say nothing of the venomous platypus, which, though not so dangerous to humans, can be an annoyance.

Platypus swimming on the surface of a waterway--© susan flashman/Fotolia

Platypus swimming on the surface of a waterway–© susan flashman/Fotolia

Yet Australia now boasts a new venomous critter, thanks to the discovery in Western Australia of a kind of jellyfish. At the width of a human arm, Keesingia gigas is a strapping creature as sea jellies go, and it poses a mystery, since it’s so poorly documented that most existing photographs suggest that it has no tentacles—an improbability, given the structural rules governing its kind.

With or without them, the giant jellyfish is most definitely something to avoid. Swimmers off the coast of Wales had best hope that Keesingia doesn’t take after its barrel and lion’s mane cousins, which turned up in record numbers off the country’s southern coast last year. Reports the BBC Wales news service, a survey conducted by the Marine Conservation Society indicates that last year was a record year for jellyfish sightings, and this year promises to be a contender. And why should their numbers be on the rise? Because they thrive on warm, polluted waters that are inhospitable to other forms of sea life, and such waters are increasingly the norm.

* * *

Back to Australia for a moment. Scientists working in continental waters have recently been revising the taxonomy of the humpback dolphin, and now, they report in the journal Marine Mammal Science, they’ve identified a new species of Sousa, the Australian humpback dolphin, which swims in the ocean between Queensland and New Guinea.

* * *

The biggest threat to this new species, as with so many other marine mammals, is overfishing and capture, whether accidental or deliberate. Close behind is collision with boats. New Scientist reports that Sri Lankan biologist Asha de Vos is using mathematical models to examine patterns of shipping traffic and marine mammal interaction to determine ways to protect whales from accidental ship strikes. De Vos observes, “voluntary boat-speed reductions, giving whales more time to get out of the way, have been used to protect right whales along the south-eastern US coast.” In California, another strategy has been to realign shipping lanes to keep them away from areas frequented by whales. A Sri Lankan solution might involve a combination of such methods, or something new altogether.

* * *

Ironically, reports the International Whaling Commission, the most common kind of collision for whales is—gulp—with a whale-watching boat. Fishing vessels follow those craft only distantly, after naval ships, container ships, and ferries. Given that ecotourism is likely to rise in the coming decades, and given that it’s now projected that ocean shipping traffic will double in the next 20 years, the time seems ripe to develop mathematical models and much, much else to keep the cetaceans out of harm’s way.