Jellyfish

Case Title: Eliminating overpopulation of Jellyfish and balancing sea

life

The United States Duty to Rescue is described as our moral obligation to rescue another
party in peril, it is what framed our national constitution, and it is in the spirit of this duty
that my partner Tycho and I would like to bring your attention to the jellyfish crisis. The
National Science Foundation describes the Peoples Republic of Chinas jellyfish issue as,
the stuff of horror movies, when asked about the species violent population spikes and
effects on the coasts of the Yellow Sea. It is with quotes like this in mind that Tycho and I
stand in firm affirmation of the resolution that states;

Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic
and/or diplomatic engagement with the Peoples Republic of China.

Beginning with,

Contention One: Significance and Harms

A) Jellyfish are an increasingly large problem to our worlds environments and economy
Lisa-ann Gershwin, PhD in Marine Biology and PhD Integrative Biology, 2013, (author of Stung, a book about Jellyfish, http://lisagershwin.com/, 2005 Doctor of Philosophy, Marine
Biology James Cook University, Townsville, QLD / 2003-2005 Taxonomy & phylogeny of Australian Cubozoa (2003) Doctor of Philosophy, Integrative Biology (deferred) University of California, Berkeley, USA / 1997-
2003 Evolution of jellyfish from Precambrian to present 1997, Bachelor of Science, emphasis in Marine Biology California State Univ. Northridge, USA / 1993-1997 Honors & Magna cum laude Zoological & Botanical
breadth, skills in molecular methods 1993 Associate of Arts Los Angeles Pierce College, USA / 1990-1993 Biology, Computer Programming, Communication Accessed 11/11/14

Jellyfish are everywhere, spread around the world in ship ballast or sea currents and they are Ubiquitous from top to bottom of the ocean, from pole to pole, year-round, they grow faster
than any other species and eat almost everything in the ocean that doesn't eat them (copepods, fish eggs, larvae, flagellants). They keep consuming,
spit out food, waste other creatures food, and when they're full, they keep eating. If theres no food, jellyfish can consume their bodies, make

themselves smaller, and then force themselves to find food again to grow. They have very few predators
because they are not very nutrient, they eat a lot of high value food. They reproduce very quickly, 10,000 eggs a day that hatch 12-20 hours

later, they can live in eutrophication zones because they need little oxygen, fresh or salt water, can survive ice

ages, hot climates, mass extinctions, predators, and competitors, and they have been known to live over 10 years. They are
harming the biodiversity in the ocean, the fishing industry, and emit CO2 into the air causing global
warming. We are helping Jellyfish thrive with (our) overfishing.

B) Jellyfish massively destroy ecosystems, decimating tens of thousands of square miles

within our oceans
National Science Foundation, United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering,
(DA 6/26/16) September 22, 2006, https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/jellyfish/textonly/swarms_bloominmagic.jsp, Bloomin' Magic

Dead Zones are huge swaths of deep ocean that are ultra-polluted and oxygen starved. Unable to breathe in
Dead Zones, most sea creatures, such as fish and shellfish, either flee or die. But jellyfish thrive in Dead
Zones. How? By playing unique metabolic tricks. For example, jellyfish can dissolve oxygen in their watery tissues, and thereby carry built-in, life-sustaining oxygen supplies into Dead Zones. (Jellyfish are 95
percent water; humans are 65 percent water.) Moreover, jellyfish in Dead Zones face few predators and competitors that would otherwise control their numbers. Feasting on ubiquitous plankton, jellyfish

not only survive but actually dominate many Dead Zones. The Earth currently has more than 400 Dead
Zones--some of which cover tens of thousands of square miles. Many Dead Zones are so jellified that they
could rightly be renamed Jellyfish Zones.

C) Jellyfish blooms are increasing and harming Chinese waters and economy
Chinese Institute of Oceanology, 1,000 senior scientists and technicians, 2015, (DA 6/21/16) Giant jellyfish blooms in Chinese waters by Ian Jenkinson, 754(1),
111. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2320-3

Jellyfish blooms are perceived as increasing around the globe. Overall, jellyfish bring benefits as well as harms. In East Asia, however,
these blooms are considered the most serious ecological disaster , together with the harmful algae blooms (HABs), both of which
are impacting the marine ecosystems, environmental safety, and the development of the maritime
economy. Firstly, the occurrence of jellyfish blooms has been increasing in frequency and in geographical range ,
influencing the maritime economy in many ways.

D) The Chinese government is administering research to learn how to stop Jellyfish Blooms
emphasizing that the Peoples Republic of China see jellyfish as a problem
Ian Jenkinson, Researcher at the Chinese academy of sciences, Institute of Oceanology I. R. 2015, Giant jellyfish blooms in Chinese waters by Ian Jenkinson, 754(1), 111.
http://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2320-3 Accessed 6/13/16

A National Basic Research Program project on Giant Jellyfish Blooms in Chinese Seas was thus established for 20112015
by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Peoples Republic of China. Chinese seas principally affected are
the Yellow Sea, and the East China Sea , and the Bohai Sea, which is where the National Program has been
concentrated.

Jellyfish are a huge problem, but have not been stopped because of the issues noted in,

Contention Two: Inherency

A) Chinas ocean policies are empirically ineffective making international interaction key
to solve the jellyfish issue
Department of Defense, July 20, 2016, (DA 7/24/16) The hidden cause of the South China Sea disputes: there arent enough fish in the sea.
http://thediplomat.com/2016/07/the-south-china-sea-is-really-a-fishery-dispute/

Actions and Reactions in the South Sea Endangered fisheries pose a serious dilemma as claimants seek to
promote sustainable governance that would maintain fish stocks over the long term without incurring
economic loss or conceding ground on sovereignty disputes. The efforts of different Chinese actors to lay
claim to political narratives within conflicting policy objectives (sustainability versus exclusive-access, in this case) produce policy outcomes
that are often erratic, contradictory, or even self-defeating. At the regional level, decentralized and often
contradictory policies driven by domestic interest groups can undermine potential international solutions to shared
problems. The lack of effective international governance is at the heart of SCS sustainability problems. The SCS lacks the multilateral Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMO) that successfully manage fisheries
elsewhere. And unlike the East China Sea and Yellow Sea, there are no bilateral or multilateral fishing agreements in the SCS. Furthermore, because the regions EEZs remain hotly contested, UNCLOS fails to provide adequate governance.
China has already dismissed the Permanent Court of Arbitrations ruling on SCS EEZ disputes as invalid, and absent Beijings cooperation, disagreements over regional boundaries will likely persist well into the future. One of two courses of
action seems necessary: claimants must either agree to binding, multilateral action to govern contested areas or one country must provide undisputed oversight over fishery stocks. Few regional states possess the power necessary to
attempt the latter course of action. China is the exception. Chinas numerous efforts at regional governance include ongoing seasonal SCS fishing bans (1999); the administrative upgrade of Sansha city from a county to a prefecture-level
city (2012); the complete overhaul of Chinas maritime bureaucracies into a new China State Oceanic Administration (2013); Hainan provinces law requiring foreign fishermen to seek State Council approval prior to entering Chinese-
claimed SCS waters (2013); and most recently, Chinas massive island-building projects in the Spratly Islands (2013-2015). Chinas sustainability efforts are undermined by overriding incentives to retain full, if not necessarily exclusive,
access to disputed fisheries to provide employment and food security. Since 2007, China has paid out billions in fuel subsidies to compensate for the industrys unprofitability (as reflected by declining CPUE values). Although subsidies keep
the industry afloatand some 14 million industry workers employedthey have the unfortunate externality of undermining sustainability efforts by skewing market forces to allow fishermen to keep squeezing over-exploited fisheries.
Additionally, Chinas domestic sovereignty narratives further complicate efforts. Decades of commitment to the nine-dash line as a sovereignty demarcation has produced a great deal of political inertia that can be leveraged by Chinese
groups for their own interest. Supporters of the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), for example, argue that government-subsidized oil exploration in disputed SCS regions should be used to demonstrate sovereigntyan
argument oft-recycled along the spectrum of would-be SCS actors. Separating Sovereignty From Sustainability Fishing is equally important to other SCS claimants. The Philippines employ some 1.5 million traditional fishermen and the
industry accounts for 2.7 percent of national GDP, with three-fourths of the total fishing production from the SCS. Fish comprises some 35.3 percent of all animal proteins consumed in Vietnam and in the Philippines and Indonesia that
number is even higher42.6 percent and 57.3 percent respectively. As oneFilipino senator put it, retaining access to fisheries in the face of Chinese advances is not just a matter of economics, but of starvation. Given the importance of
fish to the region, unilateral Chinese actions are unlikely to produce a stable andsustainable status quo, especially given increasingly negative reactions to Chinese assertive SCS policies by claimant states and major regional powers.
Multilateral governance is needed. Whereas RFMOs typically provide such governance, a new SCS Fishery Management Organization (SCSFMO) may be problematic for several reasons. For one, RFMOs are founded on UNCLOS provisions,
which have become a proxy battleground for sovereignty issues. Chinas rejection of the UNCLOS tribunals arbitration ruling makes an UNCLOS-based solution harder for Beijing to accept. Moreover, RFMOs that manage fish stocksas
opposed to migratory speciesonly operate in waters outside of countries 200 nautical mile EEZs. Were The Hagues ruling universally accepted, organizing a SCSFMO would be fairly straightforward; countries would individually manage
their own EEZs and jointly manage the remaining international seas. Because some 65 percent of the SCS Large Marine Ecosystem (LME) is disputed however, an effective SCSFMO would need to transcend disputed maritime boundaries to
provide effective governance. A Way Forward If dwindling fisheries are significant drivers of regional competition, there may be a silver lining that gives some grounds for optimism. Fish are much more tangible objects of negotiation than
sovereignty or historical ownership claims. Claimant states, and China in particular, must work to resolve the tensions between pursuing maritime sustainability and retaining unlimited access. Durable regional solutions must begin with
domestic approaches that work to sustainably supply Chinas fish food demand and provide employment alternatives to millions of over-subsidized Chinese fishermen. Allowing domestic groups to leverage sovereignty narratives to advance
their individual interest impedes constructive regional solutions and works against Chinas broader national interests. Sovereignty and sustainability need to be separated in the South China Sea. Claimants might explore multilateral options
under UNCLOS Section 197, which mandates that regions shall cooperate as required to formulate and elaborate international rules, standards, and recommended practices and procedures for the protection and preservation of the
marine environment, taking into account characteristic regional features. Such regional cooperation is urgent and necessary, even when the characteristic regional features include intractable sovereignty disputes. Deng Xiaopings 1979
proposal to shelve sovereignty disputes and pursue joint development of resources might provide a political basis for Beijing to pursue this approachespecially if it is framed as the necessary condition for continued Chinese access to

Ultimately, the regions current free-for-all approach to resource

sustainable fisheries in the SCS that can help meet future demand.

management is ineffective at best and disastrous at worst. The latter scenario appears more likely.

Plan Text:
Thus, Tycho and I present the following plan to solve the existing problems

The USFG will undergo the full implementation of the JEROS System into the Yellow Sea to
limit and control the total number of jellyfish.

Plan Planks:
A. The JEROS System is the implementation of the JEROS AUVs (see plank b) and the full
scale market creation of selling jellyfish to the PRCs Government
B. JEROS stands for Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm autonomous underwater vehicles
C. Funding will be expanded to cover 100% of the development, construction, and
implementation of said JEROS (Which are already built, tested, and ready for take-off)
D. Administration and Enforcement will be through the USFG
E. Funding will be through congressional Normal Means.
Tycho and I reserve the right to legislative intent and Fiat. If you have any questions,
please feel free to ask in cross examination.

Contention Three: Solvency

A) The Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm Autonomous Underwater Vehicles, JEROS are
safe, cheap, and significantly more efficient that the status quo
Daily Mail, the worlds second biggest and widely trusted political newspaper, 2014, (Writer on current event problems) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2442737/Jellyfish-
killer-Robot-destroy-900kg-fish-hour-save-industry-millions.html Accessed 11/13/14

The jellyfish mincer: Terrifying robot which can devour 900kg of fish an hour could help save millions of dollars a year. South
Korean industry lost $300m because of gelatinous creatures. Can block up nuclear power systems and destroy fishing businesses. New system floats on water with a

propeller attached. Hunts for the creatures using GPS before trapping and ingesting them. Jellyfish are growing in numbers
around the world and cost marine industries millions every year. But a South Korean scientist may have found a way to combat the problem, by producing a killer robot which shreds the fish up and destroys them

The robot patrols the

within seconds. The machine called JEROS (short for Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm) can kill 900kg of the gelatinous creature in an hour using its deadly propellers.

seas for the fish using a GPS system attached to motors below the surface and can plan its attack using cameras.
According to the website Fast Company, the deadly system then traps the animals in a submerged net before ingesting them through the blades. He started to think of a way to kill them in 2009, when the South
Korean marine industry lost an estimated $300 million because of the creatures. During a test run, one system shredded 900kg of jellyfish in one hour, a sign that the killer robots could provide a way to combat

The system, which is cheaper than trapping them in a net, would save millions for marine
the growing jellyfish population.

industries every year and would save lives.

B) Root causes to the Jellyfish population increases are impossible to stop it is JEROS
flexibility that make them the key mechanism to solve all problems associated
Oxford University, (Press) Widely respect department of the University of Oxford for research, scholarship, and education publishes worldwide December 24, 2015, (DA 6/4/16)
http://icesjms.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2015/12/24/icesjms.fsv255.full

The drivers for these increases, however, are probably manifold and the object of some debate (e.g. Mills, 2001; Condon et al., 2013; Gibbons and
Richardson, 2013), but some appear to be linked to various anthropogenic factors. These factors include climate change, eutrophication, overfishing,

and the increased availability of hard substrata in coastal systems, among others (see Purcell, 2012, for recent review).
Jellyfish are probably able to respond positively to these impacts , individually and/or in synergy, directly and/or indirectly, and as either polyps and/or
medusae. Although overfishing and climate change are clearly global issues, their impacts and effects at the local level differ widely across the globe. Consequently, local explanations need

to be sought for local population increases, because it is only with knowledge of local drivers (including
overfishing and climate change) that we will be in a position to manage local population increases. And we
should not forget that a pattern observed at a very broad scale might be driven by multiple causality, with
different causes being prevalent at different places.

Advantage One: (CFI) Chinese Fishing Industry

A) Jellyfish are harming the Chinese economy
Jane Qiu, PhD Marine Biology, 2014 Coastal havoc boosts jellies by Jane Qiu 514(7524), 545545. http://doi.org/10.1038/514545a Accessed 6/14/16

in the Yellow Sea off Chinas eastern coast. The slimy monsters were
It was a truly gelatinous world, says marine ecologist Sun Song, recalling a jellyfish outbreak last year

have repeatedly choked Chinese waters in the past decade,

everywhere, their long tentacles fluttering ferociously in the rolling waves. Such blooms

posing substantial threats to tourism, fisheries and coastal facilities such as chemical plants and nuclear
power stations.

Impact scenario A: Food Shortages

1 The Chinese are eating more sea food then they are pulling in
st

Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, 42 institutes that are integrative agricultural scientific research organization with responsibility for carrying out
both basic and applied research, 2013, (DA 6/21/16) http://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/china-eating-more-seafood-than-it-produces China eating more seafood than it produces

Growth in Chinas consumption of aquatic products is outpacing growth in production of such products, according to an
agricultural ministry researcher in Beijing in documents provided to Seafoodsource by the ministry. The shift to urbanization of rural residents is driving consumption among previously low-level consumption

Chinas
segment of society, said Zhang Yumei, a fisheries specialist at the Agriculture Information Institute at Chinas Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the ministrys main think tank. Zhang claims that

consumption of aquatic products, at 16.5 million metric tons (MT) (compared to 7.56 million MT in 2000), represents 30
percent of the countrys total aquatic output, and at a growth rate of 5.71 percent is growing significantly
faster than overall output of aquatic products.

2 Unless China takes steps to fix their ocean ecosystems and economy, they will face a
nd

mass starvation
Tyler Grant, a journalist that has been published in the Foreign Policy Journal, the China Post, the Forsyth County News, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Yale Global, and the Virginia Journal of Social Policy

and the Law, March 14, 2016, (DA 6/21/16) http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/the-mass-starvation-to-come-in-china/ The Mass Starvation to Come in China

Unless Beijing can change the course of their economic policy and environmental usage, millions are
doomed to starve. When this happens, China will look abroad for food and resources and as the world saw in the recent pillaging of African resources, local
populations suffer. The newest step of purchasing of American farmland is worrisome, just as the land grab in Africa was for commodities pricing internationally. China must
reform economically and environmentally or Americans may end up paying for the consequences. This may seem like a drastic
conjecture given that many in recent years have predicted China to be the worlds next great superpower.
While on the surface this seems true, China possessing both a large economy and an expansive global
system for natural resources, the underlying foundation of Chinas growth has begun to crack and the
fallout will wreak havoc for millions of Chinese. Chinas economics are troubling. Last years growth rate of 6.9 percent was the lowest in the last 25 years. More
distressing perhaps is that Chinese officials have guaranteed a growth rate of 6.5 percent, lower than 2015s growth, for the next five years and even at that forecast, many economists cast significant doubt about
that guarantee. Furthermore, in just the last six months, exports, one of the bedrocks of the Chinese economy, suffered a 20 percent decrease, one of the largest decreases in more than a decade. All of these
metrics point to a decreased buying power for the Chinese government. This decreased buying power is reflected in reduced funds for government projects and housing. The housing market continues to be a large
bubble. During my travels in the Hunan province, it was hard to miss the massive private and government housing projects that supply millions with work in the central and western provinces of China. In 2013, the
Economist reported that the property bubble in China was prime to burst due to the increasing number of ghost towns. The ghost towns they were referring to are actually a misnomer for massive real estate
projects that have never housed people. The number of these empty housing projects is likely to increase. Over the past five years, real estate investment has fallen from above 30 percent to below 5 percent.
This decline in large-scale housing projects is reflected in a fluctuating unemployment rate. While the Chinese contend that their unemployment rate has remained stable over the last five years at under 4.3
percent, estimates by non-government entities deem this number manipulated. Better estimates put the unemployment rate at above 10 percent since 2007: 10 percent of the Chinese labor force, 793 million
people, equals 79.3 million people out of work. This amount of Chinese out of work ordinarily might not be an issue, however, the environmental factors spell an even deeper chasm for a heavily indebted Beijing.

China produces less and less food every year because of their poor environmental management practices. One
of the greatest concerns is the desert creep phenomenon occurring along the thousands of miles of tree line that separate farming from the deserts that make up a large part of Chinas western and northwestern
border. Attempts at taming the desert through the use of the Great Green Wall of China, a government planted tree system to hold back the aggressive grip of the desert, have all but failed. This failure barely
slowed the desert creep which claims more than 3,400 km2 of farm land per year, roughly the size of the city of Atlanta. In grains, for example, Beijing has already conceded that for the foreseeable future, the

Unless the Chinese begin investing in farms abroad, they will be

Chinese grain consumption will greatly exceed its domestic production.

completely dependent on foreign nations to supply them the gap in some of these foods. Being no longer self-
sustainable

3 Jellyfish are a source of food

rd

BBC News, an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs, 2012, (DA 11/18/14)
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120405-blooming-jellyfish-problems Jellyfish Blooms Creating Oceans of Slime

In Japan and other parts of Asia, jellyfish are dried and chopped into noodle-like strips to be
And, of course, they are a source of food.

added to soups, for example. Some entrepreneurial Japanese are even making vanilla-and-jellyfish ice cream. Jellyfish are 80% protein and very low in
fat, although the high sodium content probably outweighs their health benefits.

4 The Jellyfish food industry is huge and we can distribute it to countries in need
th

including China
Green Deane, expert in natural studies, PHD from the University of Maine, 2014, (DA 6/21/16) http://www.eattheweeds.com/stomolophus-meleagris-edible-jellyfish-2/ Jellyfish

Americans may not eat jellyfish, but the rest of the world does, several hundred metric tons a year at
around $20 a pound. Its a many million-dollar business. And at least two or three of those drifting edibles are found off almost all the shores of America, one
of them in pest numbers in Florida waters and the Gulf Coast. I dont go looking for the creatures but when they turn up in my cast net they comes home with the rest of the catch. The catch, however, is the
jellyfish have to be processed over the next several days to make them edible.

Impact scenario B: Job Loss

1 Jellyfish blooms are significantly harming Chinese maritime industries

st

Chinese Academy of Sciences, Government funded scientific research institute, created in pursuit of helping Chinese society and solving complex Chinese Issues,
2015, Giant jellyfish blooms in Chinese waters by Ian Jenkinson, 754(1), 111. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-015-2320-3 Accessed 6/13/16
Jellyfish blooms are perceived as increasing around the globe. Overall, jellyfish bring benefits as well as harms. In East Asia, however, these blooms are considered the most serious
ecological disaster, together with the harmful algae blooms (HABs), both of which are impacting the marine ecosystems, environmental safety, and the development of the

maritime economy. Firstly, the occurrence of jellyfish blooms (have) has been increasing in frequency and in geographical range, influencing the maritime economy in many ways.
For example, commercial fishing is considerably impacted by aggregations of jellyfish, increasing incidents of

jellyfish stinging adversely influence coastal tourism, and jellyfish blooms at times block cooling systems in
coastal factories, as well as those of nuclear power plants, causing significant economic losses. Secondly, jellyfish
blooms are changing the way marine ecosystems function. As top predators, once jellyfish become the dominant species in the ecosystem, they risk causing catastrophic
regime shifts in the ecosystem, a subject that is much debated (Pauly et al., 1998; Condon et al., 2011, 2013).
2 Chinese Exports decreased 20% in the last 6 months this being due to the failing
nd

Chinese Fishing Industry

CNN Money, the world's largest business website, 2016, (DA 6/21/16) http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/08/news/economy/china-february-trade-slump/ China exports shrink 20%, deepening
worries over slowing growth

China's exports contracted sharply last month, deepening worries over slowing growth in the world's second-largest economy. February exports shrank 20.6% from a year
earlier to 821.8 billion yuan ($126 billion), according to data from China's General Administration of Customs. That's a steeper
drop than the 6.6% contraction the previous month. China's economy is now registering its slowest pace of growth in 25 years after decades
of breakneck expansion. Investors are worried about the scale of the slowdown, which has set off waves of volatile trading in stocks, commodities and currencies in recent months.

3 79 million jobs based on the success of Chinese exports have already been lost with
rd

more on the way

Tyler Grant, a journalist that has been published in the Foreign Policy Journal, the China Post, the Forsyth County News, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Yale Global, and the Virginia Journal of Social Policy

and the Law, March 14, 2016, (DA 6/21/16) http://www.theblaze.com/contributions/the-mass-starvation-to-come-in-china/ The Mass Starvation to Come in China

Chinas economics are troubling. Last years growth rate of 6.9 percent was the lowest in the last 25 years.
More distressing perhaps is that Chinese officials have guaranteed a growth rate of 6.5 percent, lower than 2015s growth, for the next five years and even at that forecast, many economists cast significant doubt

in just the last six months, exports, one of the bedrocks of the Chinese economy, suffered a 20
about that guarantee. Furthermore,

the largest decreases in more than a decade. All of these metrics point to a decreased buying
percent decrease, one of

power for the Chinese government. This decreased buying power is reflected in reduced funds for government
projects and housing. The housing market continues to be a large bubble. During my travels in the Hunan province, it was hard to miss the
massive private and government housing projects that supply millions with work in the central and western
provinces of China. In 2013, the Economist reported that the property bubble in China was prime to burst due to the increasing number of ghost towns. The ghost towns they were referring to
are actually a misnomer for massive real estate projects that have never housed people. The number of these empty housing projects is likely to increase. Over the past five years, real estate investment has

This decline in large-scale housing projects is reflected in a fluctuating unemployment rate.

fallen from above 30 percent to below 5 percent.

While the Chinese contend that their unemployment rate has remained stable over the last five years at
under 4.3 percent, estimates by non-government entities deem this number manipulated. Better estimates
put the unemployment rate at above 10 percent since 2007: 10 percent of the Chinese labor force , 793
million people, equals 79.3 million people out of work.

2AC: Jellyfish
Massive Outbreak of Jellyfish Could Spell Trouble for Fisheries
Stone, Richard. "Massive Outbreak of Jellyfish Could Spell Trouble for Fisheries." By Richard Stone: Yale Environment 360. N.p., Jan.
2011. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.

Among the spineless creatures of the world, the Nomuras jellyfish is a monster to be reckoned with. Its the size of a refrigerator imagine a Frigidaire Gallery Premiere rather than a hotel minibar and can exceed
450 pounds. For decades the hulking medusa was rarely encountered in its stomping grounds, the Sea of Japan. Only three times during the entire 20th century did numbers of the Nomuras swell to such gigantic
proportions that they seriously clogged fishing nets.

Then something changed. Since 2002, the population has exploded in jelly parlance, bloomed six times. In 2005, a particularly bad year, the Sea of Japan brimmed with as many as 20 billion of the bobbing bags
of blubber, bludgeoning fisheries with 30 billion yen in losses.

Why has the Nomuras jellyfish become a recurring nightmare? The answer could portend trouble for the worlds oceans. In recent years, populations of several jellyfish species have made inroads at the expense of
their main competitor fish in a number of regions, including the Yellow Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Black Sea. Overfishing and deteriorating coastal water quality are chief suspects in the rise of jellies. Global
warming may be adding fuel to the fire by making more food available to jellyfish and opening up new habitat. Now, researchers fear, conditions are becoming so bad that some ecosystems could be approaching a
tipping point in which jellyfish supplant fish.

Essential to thwarting any potential jellyfish takeover is a better understanding of the complicated dynamics
between fish and jellyfish. Jellyfish free-swimming gelatinous animals are a normal element of marine
ecosystems. Fish and jellyfish both compete for plankton. The predators keep each other in check: 124 kinds of fish species and 34 other species, including
leatherback turtles, are known to dine on jellyfish, while jellies prey on fish eggs and, occasionally, on fish themselves. Juvenile fish of some species take refuge amid tentacles and eat jellyfish parasites. Fish and
jellyfish interact in complex ways, says Kylie Pitt, an ecologist at Griffith University in Australia.

Overfishing can throw this complex relationship out of kilter. By removing a curb on jellyfish population growth,
overfishing opens up ecological space for jellyfish, says Anthony Richardson, an ecologist at CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research in Cleveland, Australia. And as
jellyfish flourish, he says, their predation on fish eggs takes a heavier and heavier toll on battered fish stocks.

When an ecosystem is dominated by jellyfish, fish will mostly disappear, says ecologist Sun Song, director of the Institute of Oceanology in Qingdao,
China. Once that happens, he contends, there is almost no method to deal with it. Just think of attempting to purge the Sea of Japan of billions of

Nomuras jellyfish, many of them hovering meters below the surface and therefore invisible to satellites or the
naked eye. Total jelly domination would be like turning back the clock to the Precambrian world, more than 550
million years ago, when the ancestors of jellyfish ruled the seas.

Sun and others are racing to get a handle on the likelihood of such a marine meltdown coming true. Like their foe, the subject is slippery. Its an enigma, for starters, why particular jellyfish run rampant. The
troublemakers are only a small fraction of the several thousand species of jellyfish out there, says Richardson. These uber-jellies reproduce like mad, grow fast, eat most anything, and can withstand poor water
quality. They are tough, Richardson says like cockroaches.

The big question is whether these cockroaches of the sea are poised to hijack marine ecosystems. Theres
anecdotal evidence that jellyfish blooms are becoming more frequent. But there are also cases in which jellyfish
gained the upper hand on an ecosystem, only to suddenly relinquish it. For
No one can say for sure whether severe jellyfish blooms are a passing regional phenomenon or a
global scourge.

The jury is out on whether other jelly-blighted waters can regain ecological balance as quickly as the Bering Sea did. For that reason, says Pitt, no one can say for sure whether severe jellyfish blooms are a passing
regional phenomenon or a global scourge requiring urgent measures to combat their spread.

Pitt is one of a small band of jellyfish researchers hoping to settle that question. With support from the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, Calif., she and her colleagues on the
centers Jellyfish Working Group are gathering up datasets from around the world on jellyfish blooms. They expect to have a global picture and be able to take the measure of their foe in about a year, Pitt says.

Jellyfish clearly have an impact on human activity. Besides fouling fishing nets, they invade fish farms, block
cooling intakes at coastal power plants, and force beach closures. Some jellies pose a mortal threat. Dozens of
people die each year from jellyfish stings, far more than from encounters with other marine creatures, including
sharks. A box jellyfish, the Chironex sea wasp, may be the most lethal animal on the planet: Its toxin can kill a person in three minutes. Global warming may allow deadly jellyfish, now mostly found in tropical and
subtropical waters, to conquer new turf in temperate waters as sea surface temperatures rise, warns Richardson. Its very likely that venomous jellyfish will move toward the poles, he says.

While that could be a big blow for tourism, far more worrisome to many researchers is the threat that jellies pose to
fish stocks. The most important helping hand for jellyfish may be overfishing. In one well-documented episode, the devastation of sardine stocks
appear to have cleared the way for the rise of Chrysaora off Namibia, in waters known as the northern Benguela. Recent research cruises there have hauled in about four times as much jelly biomass as fish biomass.

Another ecosystem tweak that benefits jellyfish is eutrophication. A flood of nutrients from agricultural runoff and
sewage spurs phytoplankton growth in coastal waters, providing a feeding bonanza for jellyfish. Eutrophication,
usually around the mouths of major rivers, can also create low-oxygen dead zones that jellyfish generally tolerate
better than fish.

Global warming may also abet regime change. Warmer ocean temperatures are correlated with jellyfish blooms. A possible explanation, says Richardson, is that warming leads to nutrient-poor surface waters. Such
conditions favor flagellates, a kind of zooplankton, over diatoms, a kind of phytoplankton. Flagellate-dominated food webs may be more favorable t

The waters off North Asia may be acutely vulnerable to jellyfish invasion.

For reasons yet to be fully fathomed, the waters off North Asia may be acutely vulnerable to a jellyfish invasion. Since
2000 or so, the Nomuras jellyfish and two other species Aurelia aurita and Cyanea nozakii have been plaguing the Yellow Sea. In the past 5 years, anchovy catches there have decreased 20-fold, says Sun.
Perhaps as a result, just like off Namibia, jellyfish are seizing the day. During a research cruise in the Yellow Sea in the summer of 2009, jellyfish amounted to 95 percent of the biomass netted by the scientists.

Alarmed by this ascendancy of jellyfish, Sun is leading a five-year initiative to unravel why jellyfish have become a perennial pest. Among other things, his team will hunt for the elusive cradle of jellyfish in the Yellow
Sea. Species of Cnidaria, the phylum with the vast majority of jellyfish, can spend years on the sea bottom as polyps. These reproduce asexually, popping off medusae the familiar bell-shaped form of cnidarian
jellies that drift up toward the surface. Scientists speculate that polyps may be gaining a stronger foothold in North Asia at the expense of mollusks and other bottom-dwelling creatures. The Chinese group will search
for polyps in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.

One possibility in these seas is that coastal and offshore construction and engineering works are creating new habitat for polyps. Structures as diverse as drilling platforms, embankments, and aquaculture frames
introduce smooth surfaces made of plastic and other materials into the marine environment. In the past two decades, as Chinas economy boomed, such structures have proliferated, says Yu Zhigang, a marine chemist
at Ocean University of China in Qingdao. The Chinese initiative will test the hypothesis that artificial landscapes are cradles for jellyfish polyps.

The bottom line is that multiple factors may favor jellyfish over fish, says Shin-ichi Uye, an ecologist at Hiroshima University who has charted the rapid rise of
the Nomuras jellyfish in the Sea of Japan. The recipe for what makes jellyfish run amuck likely varies by region, and for that reason may take time to decipher. But the future of the worlds fisheries may well depend on
it.

Jellyfish blooms in China: Dominant species, causes and consequences

Dong, Zhijun, Dongyan Liu, and John K. Keesing. "Jellyfish Blooms in China: Dominant
Species, Causes and Consequences." Everythingconnects.org. Yongtai Institute of Coastal
Zone Research, 2010. Web. 07 Oct. 2016.
Over the last decade, a significant increase in jellyfish blooms has been observed worldwide in marine ecosystems and are becoming seen as an indicator of a
state shift in pelagic ecosystems (Arai, 2001; Graham et al., 2001; Mills, 2001; Purcell, 2005; Purcell et al., 2007; Uye, 2008; Zhang et al., 2009; Richardson et al.,
, jellyfish blooms in pelagic ecosystems are
2009). Distinguished from the natural phenomena of jellyfish aggregation

regarded as a response to anthropogenic disturbance and climate change and can

cause numerous deleterious consequences for industry and the community, such as,
reduced fishery production from the competition for food with fish, stinging of swimmers
by venomous species and clogging coastal power plant cooling water intakes (Purcell et
al., 2007; Richardson et al., 2009). Mounting evidence indicates that the environmental
changes caused by intensive human activity (e.g., eutrophication, overfishing,
translocations, habitat modification, etc.) and climate change are all contributors to
jellyfish blooms (Arai, 2001; Purcell, 2005; Graham and Bayha, 2007; Purcell et al., 2007; Uye, 2008; Richardson et al., 2009). The marine
environment of China has deteriorated significantly over recent decades, particularly in coastal areas, due to the impact of rapid economic development, increased
population and the associated consequences of habitat loss, eutrophication, pollution and overfishing (Zhang et al., 1999; Tang et al., 2003; Jin, 2004; Liu and
Diamond, 2005). For example, the population living in the coastal regions of China increased to 529 million in 2000 from 243 million in 1952 (National Census
. In recent years, the warning signs of ecological deterioration, such as
Reports of China, 2000)

algal blooms, fishery collapse, hypoxia and now jellyfish blooms have increased
significantly in Chinese seas (Li et al., 2002; Tang et al., 2003, 2006; Liu et al., 2009;
Zhang et al., 2009). The consequences of jellyfish blooms have concerned scientists and environmental managers due to the increasing
incidence of blooms in the late of 1990s and their significant impact in Chinese seas (Table 1). For example, the decline of fisheries in the East China Sea and
Yellow Sea were associated with the increase of jellyfish blooms (Cheng et al., 2004; Ge and He, 2004; Ding and Cheng, 2007). In the autumn of 2003, a bloom of
the jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai occurred in the East China Sea with an average biomass of 1555 kg/ha and the maximum biomass of 15,000 kg/ha,
consequently, the CPUE of the commercial fishery for Pseudosciaena polyactis declined 20% during the period of the bloom (Ding and Cheng, 2005, 2007).
Another example is the bloom of jellyfish Cyanea nozakii in Liaodong Bay of Bohai Sea in 2004, which was regarded as the main cause for the approximately 80%
Moreover,
decline of edible jellyfish Rhopilema esculentum and the direct economic losses were approximately US$70 million (Ge and He, 2004).

venomous jellyfish can produce skin erythema, swelling, burning and vesicles, and at
times, severe dermonecrotic, cardio- and neurotoxic effects, which are occasionally fatal
for some patients (Mariottini et al., 2008). The published hospital reports showed that
over 2000 cases of jellyfish stings occurred in the popular coastal areas of China since
1983, including 13 fatal cases (Table 2). However, the real numbers could be higher than
these considering the limited available information. About 80% of stinging cases
occurred in the last Giant jellyfish blooms are a serious problem in the East Asian Marginal Sea, including the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea and
the Sea of Japan. The causative species, Nemopilema nomurai, which is endemic in the East Asian Marginal Seas, is unique by both its enormous body size and
propensity for occasional population outbursts.

As is well known, jellyfish plays an important role in marine ecosystems. It grows very fast and feeds mainly on zooplankton, fish eggs and fish larvae; however, it
is preyed upon by few marine creatures. Jellyfish population blooms damage the structure and function of the marine ecosystem, causing many economic and
social problems, for example to tourism because of jellyfish stings, to coastal industries by blocking the pipeline of cooling systems, and to fishery resources and
fishery activities. Frequent jellyfish blooms would depress fish and other species population, making jellyfish dominant in the ecosystem, which may last for many
years. This situation has been observed in several seas in the world, mainly in fishing grounds; however, the causes and consequences of jellyfish blooms and
whether they will cause a regime shift of the ecosystem remain largely unexplored.