Jellyfish kill tons of goliath grouper after getting sucked into St. Lucie nuclear plant intake pipe

[jpak]

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2011/dec/08/jellyfish-swarm-shut-st-lucie-nuclear-plant-tons/

A massive influx of jellyfish shut down the St. Lucie nuclear power plant in late August, but it is only now that nuclear regulators, wildlife officials and marine researchers are learning that the event also killed several tons of protected goliath grouper.

A spokesman with Florida Power & Light said the public was never in danger during the Aug. 22 event. The plant, which is designed to withstand the impact of a Boeing 747 jumbo jet, was shut down for two days because of the jellyfish invasion and to repair a leak that was discovered in another pump after the shutdown, Doug Andrews said.

Jellyfish invasions of this magnitude are rare. Biologists at the plant could recall only three other similar events in the past 30 years, Andrews said. Still, the company is changing procedures and equipment, including "increasing the robustness" of screens that catch debris and wildlife and improving wildlife monitoring "to provide for earlier warning," Andrews said.

The four-day event began Aug. 22. The plant's three intake pipes, located almost a quarter-mile offshore, began sucking in an unusually large number of moon jellyfish. Traveling through the pipes at about 4.6 mph, the jellyfishes' poisonous tentacles broke off.

<more>