For reasons that remain obscure, the Sea of Japan has been overwhelmed for months with an invasion by burgeoning numbers of giant jellyfish, echizen kurage or Nomura’s jellyfish.

“They are 6ft wide and weigh 450lb (200kg), with countless poisonous tentacles, they have drifted across the void to terrorise the people of Japan. Vast armadas of the slimy horrors have cut off the country’s food supply. As soon as one is killed more appear to take its place. …The problem first became obvious in the late summer when fishermen chasing anchovies, salmon and yellowtail began finding huge numbers of the jellyfish in their nets. Often the weight of the echizen kurage broke the nets or crushed the fish to death; those that survived were poisoned and beslimed by their tentacles.” (Times of London)

These are not much smaller than the largest jellyfish extant, the lion’s mane, which has a mantle 7 ft. in diameter.

You know the old saying that, when fate hands you a lemon, make lemonade? Embattled Japanese fishermen whose livelihood has been endangered by the creatures have done just that — by starting to turn them into sushi. I wonder if some of the appeal is similar to that of fugu, the preparation of the poisonous pufferfish, prepared by highly skilled sushi chefs who know how to remove the fish’s poison bladders but which is enjoyed partly for the tingling and numbing sensation from the residual tetrodotoxin in the flesh.