A jellyfish-killing robot will be used the control the overgrown population.
The fishing industry wins about $300 billion per year from losses caused by bothersome jellyfish. Professor Hyeon Myeong and colleagues developed an unmanned robot that could systematically eradicate jellyfish in 2009. Recently the robot proved to be successful in field tests, a KAIST press release reported.
The aquatic robot, named JEROS (Jellyfish Elimination Robotic Swarm), has a "grinding device" at its front; it is powered by two cylindrical parts on the sides which helps propel it through the water and allow it to turn 360 degrees.
The robot floats on the surface of the water and entraps jellyfish with a long net before shredding them, the Telegraph reported.
Jellyfish tentacles can still sting even when disembodied, but they will be less likely to "swim" into populated waters. JEROS would also help control jellyfish breeding, which would prevent large swarms from developing.
"Recently, the increase in population of jellyfish is becoming a great menace to the oceans ecosystem, which leads to drastic damage to the fishery industries," Myeong wrote in the study published in the journal Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, the Telegraph reported
The robot can shred up to 2,000 pounds of jellyfish an hour. JEROS uses a camera to detect the gooey organisms before taking action.
"The prototype of the system was implemented, and its feasibility was demonstrated through outdoor experiments and field tests," Myeong wrote.
More testing will need to be conducted to see if JEROS can stand up to violent waves and develop "cooperative jellyfish removal strategies."
Last Sunday jellyfish caused Sweden's Oskarshamn nuclear power plant to shut down after they clogged the some underwater pipes used to bring in ocean water for cooling purposes.
"It's true that there seems to be more and more of these extreme cases of blooming jellyfish," said Lene Moller, a researcher at the Swedish Institute for the Marine Environmen, said, the Telegraph reported.
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*This article has been updated to include a correction.
