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"A big jellyfish bloom makes the headlines, while a lack of a jellyfish bloom isn't even worth reporting," says Lucas Brotz, a marine zoologist at the University of British Columbia. While some jellyfish species seem to thrive on human disturbance -- off the coast of Namibia, for example, overfishing may have tipped the ecosystem into a new state dominated by compass and crystal jellyfish -- other more finicky species appear to be declining. Researchers in a couple parts of the world have reported a drop in the number of jellyfish species they are encountering.
英屬哥倫比亞大學海洋動物學家盧卡斯·布羅茲表示：“水母突然大量增生會成為頭條新聞，不過沒有大量增生時，根本也沒有人想報道。”盡管一些水母物種似乎是在人類活動的干擾下增生的，比如在納米比亞沿海，過度捕撈可能已經將生態系統帶入了一個由羅盤水母和水晶水母主導的新狀態，但其他更為挑剔的物種似乎正在減少。世界上有幾個地區的研究人員都指出，他們碰到的水母物種變少了。
Meanwhile, if people are having more unpleasant encounters with jellyfish, is it because they're taking over the seas or because we are?
另一方面，如果人類與水母之間越來越常發生不愉快的相遇，那是因為水母接管了海洋，還是人類接管了海洋？
"Anytime we have an adverse encounter with jellyfish, it's because humans have invaded the oceans," Haddock says. "We're the ones who are encroaching into their habitat." Jellyfish are only doing what they've been doing generation after generation for hundreds of millions of years -- just pulsing along, silently, brainlessly, and, seen in the right light, gorgeously.
“我們在任何時候與水母的不愉快遭遇，都是因為人類入侵了海洋，”哈達克表示。“我們才是侵入它們棲息地的人。”水母只是做著它們數億年來一代代一直在做的事情：在水里靜靜地、無腦地脈動著，若是用對的眼光看它們，還能看出那姿態美妙非凡。
