[naturalman1975]

Be afraid... be very afraid.

[Darkwolf377]

SciFi Channel is probably working on one of their boffo Original Movies about this. It will be written, filmed, and premiered within the month. January, I mean.

[spetznaz]

Those things are the most dangerous creatures prowling the seas today. A sting from one (and in a worst case scenario several) of them on a swimmer will lead to what is described as the most intense pain imaginable (together with intense backache, headache, shooting pains in their muscles, chest and abdomen, nausea, anxiety, restlessness, vomiting, and potentially pulmonary oedema and complete heart failure), and when a person is out at sea that basically implies drowning. The Irukandji (the name of this particular type of jellyfish) is worse than any shark (living or extinct) that ever called the sea home.

Now, sharks are obviously the most known of the aquatic dangers, but to be honest with you the Irukandji is a far greater danger. When it comes to jellyfish most people know better (at least I hope they do) than to mess with them, and thus they will stay away from the Portuguese Man-o-war (which I had float maybe 10 feet from me once), and the larger variety of Box jellyfish .....however the irukandji (which is related to the Box) is only mere centimeters long. For all practical purposes it cannot be easily seen, and woe unto anyone who swims into a mass of them. Now that is one bad way to go.

Now, this article doesn't say whether it was irukandji that got inside the Reagan, but the photograph shown is of the Irukandji.

[iowamark]

The nuclear-powered ship suffered a similar problem in June 2004 when a main condenser was fouled with several hundred squid and octopi following a four day port visit to Valparaiso, Chile.

I'll bet that the next day the dining halls had a seafood special.

[iowamark]

A handful of people today protested its presence but their plans to kayak out to the "killing machine" were thwarted by tight security.

ROTFL

[MetalHeadConservative35]

you know damn well the crew had a laugh about it,

if there anything like me,despite the problems caused they probably were all like "hey that was pretty cool" and laughed the whole time,

i seen a video of a test torpedo launch on a ship and it only shot out half way, right away the crew started going into hystirics,

i love our military

[Mount Athos]

The warship stands 77m high from the waterline, 344m long

That's about how big Australian jellyfish are :)

[kb2614]

A handful of people today protested its presence but their plans to kayak out to the "killing machine" were thwarted by tight security.

Talk about bringing a knife to a gun fight.

[Old Seadog]

What is needed is tons of peanut butter to go with all that jellyfish.

[Hexenhammer]

Haha.

All I can say is Ick. Cleaning jellyfish and squid of the machinery has got to be a form of punishment.

[CheyennePress]

Anyone have any ideas what a torpedo would do to a kayak?

*I'm going to have this image stuck in my head all day now. :p

[AZRepublican]

[Jack of all Trades]

Where's Spongebob when you need him?

[R. Scott]

…after the blubbery invertebrates were sucked into its condensers while docked in the Port of Brisbane.

Sucked into the condensers – or sucked into the sea chest that the condensers feed from. I find it hard to believe they actually made it into the condensers. A simple back flush of the sea chest strainers fixes the problem. In this case the crew would be switching between systems to keep a continuous supply of seawater.

[Edit35]

...set sail after five days of offshore leave.

If they're went "offshore" wouldn't that be on the ocean?

"Onshore" leave would be a more appropriate phrase since the sailors hopefully will be relaxing ON FREAKIN LAND!!!

[mware]

They should be glad one of these babies didn't get sucked up.

[ryan71]

"A handful of people today protested its presence but their plans to kayak out to the "killing machine" were thwarted by tight security."

I love it when we get the fire hoses out and wet down the little "greenies".

[gridlock]

Squiddies!

[Frenetic]

It's all Bush's fault. Becuase Bush single handedly created global warming, the lowly creatures of the earth have risen up to attack us...including muslims.

[Jonah Hex]

Ah, sea chest duty. (memories...)

As long as it just involves the strainers and not the sea chests, it's no biggie and gives the nubs something to do. If you have to actually send a diver over the side to clear the sea chests, however... still no biggie.

[oh8eleven]

Can you just imagine what it does to the Lefties when
they read the words, "USS Ronald Reagan ?"