Did you know that in 1999, the citizens of the island of Luzon (in the Philippines) believed a long-feared coup was underway when the power went out (Stelling, 2016).
The real cause of the power going out wasn’t a military coup, it was jellyfish. A jellyfish bloom had been sucked into water intakes, taking out power stations, data centres and water treatment plants.
In 2006, a jellyfish bloom affected the Ronald Reagan, a US nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, when the bloom clogged up the water intake for the ship’s reactor (Stelling, 2016).
Reference
Stelling, T. (2016) March of the Jellies. New Scientist. 16 July 2016, pp.27-29.
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