Lovecraft's High School Peers

Hope High School 1906. HPL was 16. These were people he would have seen in the hallways everyday - the days he attended. They saw him. What they thought of each other - well we must use our imagination.

More Fungus I Have Known

Here is a startling white, slaby kind of fungus. It just seems to have popped out of the grooves of the bark. On one of the images, you can see bluish-gray lichen also on the tree. In the lower section, kids have either scuffed the bark, or a lawnmower has barked the tree ages ago. This may have allowed more nutrients to seep, as opposed to the less expansive colonies at the top of the tree.







Above are several views of the same cluster of fleshy fungus.
Below, farther up the tree is older material already turned rusty and dried up. I've been unable to get bac to the park, but I suppose the entire mass has turned and dried up by now. I think this was on 8 November 2009.

Geery de la Ree treasure seen at auction ...

Thanks, Yarmak!





Ec'h-Pi-El Speaks, an autobiographical sketch by H P LOVECRAFT, illustrations by Virgil Finlay, published by Gerry de la Ree, USA 1972. Copy no 40 of 500 on 70 pound parchment.

Fungus I have Known!

As I promised many days ago, I tried to dust off old fungus pictures. Sadly, I have not been able to get my old archives. Too many things going on, etc. I did get to take new pictures recently, so I'll show those.



This tree had another large white growth in it in 2006. Those pix are tucked away so safely I can't find them. :) I don't know if it is unusual to find this "tooth fungus" in the same place year after year or not. The ground where this tree is located is often soaked, even when the weather is dry. I think either a tiny streamlet feeds it in the park, or it has a very low ground table.




Another view. I often think of trees as personified. This one has a gaping mouth and is tortured, it seems.



This is probably the best detail I have on it. From a casual observer, it looks like someone stuffed styrofoam in the tree, or an old plastic bag. It's very large, not quite as big as a basketball, but maybe a good 6 inches or more across. It's very high up, probably 12 feet of more, so it's hard for me to judge.


The one from 2006 rested much lower in the cavity, and was taller. I checked it as the Fall moved into winter, and it began to deteriorate badly. It yellowed, and the exterior became weathered and gritty. I suppose that's why it's called a 'tooth fungus' because it looks like thousands of serated teeth on the surface, but that's sheer speculation on my part.

Alcestis

Howard Phillips Lovecraft - Alcestis - A Play - published in 1985 by the Strange Company in an edition of just 200 copies. c.A4 folder with about 18 unbound sheets, finely printed, reproducing the handwritten play by Lovecraft and including repro. photos of Lovecraft and Sonia Haft Greene Lovecraft. This copy shows faint ghost of price sticker and has a few minor rubs but otherwise a near fine copy.

Fubar

Fubar: A Periodical, Volume One, Number One Magazine/Chapbook (Soft Cover)

compiled by Joseph BellPublisher: Soft Books (Canada);

Year: 1983

Size: 11" x 8.5" (approx.); Page Count: 30

Includes:The Lovecraft Collector 1949, with two letters from editor Ray H. Zorn and full bibliographic list;The Lovecraft Collectors Library 1952-1955 (full bibliographic details);The Lovecraftsman 1963-1965 (brief);Nyctalops 1970-1983 (details of all HPL and related material);The Dark Brotherhood Journal & Newsletter 1971-1973 (biographical essay and bibliographical checklist);The Journal Of The H.P. Lovecraft Society 1976-1979 (detailed bibliographic list);Lovecraft Studies 1979-1982 (detailed bibliographic list);Crypt Of Cthulhu 1981-1983 (full bibliographic list including four essays by Robert M. Price).Limited to 100 hand-numbered copies

Joseph Bell

Soft Books Publications: The First Five Years, 1981-1986 Chapbook (Soft Cover) compiled by Joseph Bell Publisher: Soft Books (Canada); Year: 1986Size: 11" x 8.5" (approx.); Page Count: 7Soft Books were an early small press dedicated mainly to H.P. Lovecraft related material. This listing of their publications includes brief descriptions and insights into the press's history.Limited to 150 unnumbered copies.First Printing Copy.

Another edition of Bell's issues is shown, as well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

If you play Farmville, you'll recognize the cute baby turkey. :)

To those of you who celebrate your giving of thanks on other days, I offer you my thanks that you stop by periodically and think of Mr. Lovecraft. He was an atheist, but I'm not and I believe one form of immortality is remembering people who are now passed. I also thank you for stopping by and reading the blog!

In these tough economic times - and I pray they don't get tougher - let's recall that much of HPL's adult life was spent in economic marginality. Be kind to someone or think kindly of someone less fortunate today.

1914 card - Lovecraft would have been 24.

100,000 +

On what better day to achieve this milestone than Thanksgiving Day.

Thank you for reading.

circa 1912 Interior First Baptist Church

The church would have looked very similar to this when Lovecraft briefly attended as a child, and later (once) lectured in a portion of the building.

In 1912, HPL was about 22.

The Canal: 1933

HARVEST
A Sheaf of Poems from Driftwind (April, 1926 to May, 1933)
Compiled and published by Walter John Coates, Editor
North Montpilier, Vermont: The Driftwood Press, 1933
First edition: One of 150 (of 225) copies bound in limp covers

Trace of soiling to the covers, else near fine in harvest gold textured self-wraps with a black embossed pumpkin patch illustration, titles, decoration and rules to the front cover

Small octavo; 57 pages
This anthology selects poems that appeared in various issues of "Driftwind" from April, 1926 to May, 1933. Collects H.P. Lovecraft's short poem "The Canal."

Attractively printed from hand-set type and printed on fine quality grey paper.

1943 Bibliography

FAPA FANZINE FOR THE CLASSIC HORROR/FANTASY WRITER H. P. LOVECRAFT...16 PAGES AND LISTS IN ORDER EVERY PUBLISHED STORY BY H.P.L.

William Evans was behind this. 1943. It's nondescript, the Ebay image is just yellowed pages with indecipherable print. So, here we are just 6 years after HPL's death, and fans are compiling a lengthy bibliography of Lovecraft.

Clearly fans "in the know" were ebing encouraged by one another, and probably Derleth's dynamism, to propagate the legend. One must realize, though, this was not the New York Times, but by teenagers and college kids who thought that HPL was "in". It just so happened that these "kids" grew up to be significantly influential editors, publishers, and convention addicts. Lovecraft became one of their badges.

Lovecraft Parody: Arthur C Clarke

Cover Art by "Virgin Filigree".

At the Mountains of Murkiness Ferret Fantasy 1st Edition Limited to 1 of 1000 printed 1973. Errata slip still attached. 9 Parodies. Parodied authors include: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (a Sherlock parody), Arthur Machen H. Rider Haggard, H. P. Lovecraft, Fergus Hume, Jules Verne & H.G. Wells. The cover is a parody of Virgil Finlay's work (here 'Virgin Filigree.') by Jim Cawthorn. If you need a laugh, this is it.

Clarke originally penned this as a fun story and it posted at (At the Mountains of Murkiness), in Satellite (fanzine) v3 #4 1940. Mr. Price had it reprinted in a collection, also.

It tends to show the rapid absorption of Lovecraft by one day talented writers. Only 3 years after his death, Clarke was lampooning classic Lovecraft (as would Bradbury).

Twin "colours" out of space ...

*sigh*. I was going to type in about the two metoer events of the 18th-19th, but Blogger is not allowing much right now. So, I'll just refer you to the news services for:

About 12:07 AM local time in Utah, the sky lit up with a meteor fragment on the 18th. It may have hit near Dugway in the desert.

In addition on the Gold Coast near Brisbane, the sky also lit up at locat time 9:45 AM on the 19th.

This is in addition to a 6 Nov report that an asteroid glanced off the Earth's atmosphere.

In the same reports, they revealed that a very large object burned out over Africa 13 months ago (a piece was found in the Sudan), and another a month ago over Indonesia.

Strange things are happening!

26 September 1931 - Airport!

One wonders what 41 year old HPL would have thought of the changing technology. A dedicated airport in Providence.

99,277

Hmm, maybe we will make it to 100,000 reads by the end of the year! Thank you, everyone, for reading!

-Chrispy

PROVIDENCE RI IMPERIAL THEATRE c1910

PROVIDENCE RI IMPERIAL THEATRE c1910

Vintage 1932 calendar

Ouch! A Burned Finger.

[19 November 1928 HPL to Wandrei]

If this letter is totally illegible, ascribe it to a burn on my finger resulting from an attempt to do my own ironing.

PROVIDENCE RI EMPIRE THEATRE c1910

PROVIDENCE RI EMPIRE THEATRE c1910

Vintage 1900 Calendar

Walking tour map of Lovecraft's haunts.

Coffee, Mr. Lovecraft?

A Providence centered coffee supply distributor, circa, 1900.

Providence Made Masonic Spoon

Recently seen on the Ebayeum. Seems to date to HPL's era.
SPOON IN ORIGINAL PACKAGING
MARKED ON BACK KLITZNER PROVIDENCE R.I.
Iconography detail is interesting.

Lovecraft's Enlistment Paper

Sorry to be so slow about getting this up, but I copied it from ancestry.com and just now had a breath to post. He lists himself as a writer and self-employed. (I may have put this up previously a few months back, not sure.)

Salute to all veterans who valiantly fight for our respective nations. They do the work when politicians and diplomats fail. May we have peace in the future.

Elegy for Lovecraft

Rhode Island School of Design

Chrispy at LNN

http://lovecraftnewsnetwork.blogspot.com/

If you haven't already been overexposed by my copious verbiage at HPLblog, you can read more at this interview.

'nuff said.

Fungi Not From Yuggoth: The Lecture

Paul, thank you for tipping this over. It's about 17 minutes but worth it, and gives a strong sense of alienness, and how we might adapt to the shock of "the alien". Our world is very different from the way we believe it to be.

To others who have sent emails, I appreciate the thoughts and encouragement.



Visit: http://brokensea.com/

TV Guide 1971 Pickman's Model Article

Religious Essay Including Lovecraft

{Found on the Internet}

H.P. Lovecraft, Darwinism's Visionary Storyteller
Friday July 10, 2009
Categories: Life's Origins & Evolution
Picture a majestic T. rex receiving the tablets of the Ten Commandments in its undersized forelimbs, or an elegant octopus crucified on an old rugged cross with four crossbars instead of one.


Such images are what Kenneth Miller presumably has in mind with his comforting Darwinist thought that intelligent creatures were guaranteed to pop up even in the course of an evolutionary process of purely unguided, purposeless churning. You see, he tells us, evolution was bound to "converge" (as theorized by Simon Conway Morris) not necessarily on a human being but on -- well, as Miller has said, it could have been "a big-brained dinosaur, or... a mollusk with exceptional mental capabilities." Just for fun, let's grant the scientific merit of "convergence" -- though many Darwinists, in fact, do not. My argument here is not with Miller's science but with his imagination.


A Roman Catholic and a Brown University biologist, Ken Miller is one of those theistic evolutionists who want other religious believers to feel there's nothing in Darwin to offend religious sensibilities. He and others (such as Obama's favorite geneticist, Francis Collins) invite us to imagine God being delighted with such creatures, noble and impressive in their way, as the culmination of the evolutionary process that He chose not to guide. But what if the intelligent creature that resulted from all the purposeless churning, and that was intended to reflect God's own image, had been something really horrible.


That's the scenario that an author I enjoy, a committed Darwinist and atheist -- H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) -- allows us to contemplate. In his terrifically imaginative horror stories, most set in a spooky, antiquated New England, the great theme is that humanity is but a tiny, unimportant speck in an unimaginably vast universe that has cast up innumerable varieties of extraterrestrial beings, some of which have colonized our planet. Darwinists love him. If you follow PZ Myers's blog, you'll know PZ linked the other day to an "Unholy Bible" -- Holy Scriptures tweaked along Lovecraftian lines (Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning Cthulhu created R'lyeh and the earth").


Many of Lovecraft's creatures are so repellent that when a human being encounters them, he's as likely as not to die right there on the spot from the sheer terror. Here's a description of one, depicted in the form of a little statue at the beginning of "The Call of Cthulhu":


It seemed to be a sort of monster, or symbol representing a monster, of a form which only a diseased fancy could conceive. If I say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature, I shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestion of a Cyclopean architectural background.


"Shockingly frightful"! Lovecraft writes in the opening paragraph of the same story:


The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.


In his biography H.P. Lovecraft: A Life (Necronomicon Press), leading Lovecraft maven S.T. Joshi gives Darwin, Huxley, and Haeckel as Lovecraft's "chief philosophical influences." His reading went back to the Greek philosophers Democritus and Epicurus, but he got his Darwinism primarily by way of the English science and philosophy popularizer Hugh Elliot and from Darwin's foremost German disciple, Ernst Haeckel.


From Elliot, Lovecraft absorbed "the denial of teleology," of cosmic progress toward any particular goal, and "the denial of any form of existence other than those envisaged by physics and chemistry." Darwin was important for having refuted the "argument for design," thereby guaranteeing man's "comic insignificance."


Play the videotape of evolutionary history back again and Ken Miller imagines you get a charming brainy creature for God to play with -- something lovable and admirable. Lovecraft would have seen that as sentimental nonsense.


In a universe unguided by the intelligent purpose of a just, loving God, there's no reason to imagine that the intelligent creature or creatures that resulted from the endless churning would be nice, cute, or noble. The probability seems reasonably high -- why not? -- that they would be grotesque, obnoxious, loathsome, abhorrent, ghastly. Those are all, by the way, favorite adjectives with Lovecraft. He was big on adjectives, deploying them extravagantly. His fiction, over and over, asks us to consider the possibility that the university is filled with such horrors: "terrifying vistas of reality."


Here is his description of a shoggoth, another monster in his Cthulhu mythos (from "At the Mountains of Madness"):


It was a terrible, indescribable thing vaster than any subway train - a shapeless congeries of protoplasmic bubbles, faintly self-luminous, and with myriads of temporary eyes forming and un-forming as pustules of greenish light all over the tunnel-filling front that bore down upon us, crushing the frantic penguins and slithering over the glistening floor that it and its kind had swept so evilly free of all litter.


"They were the hellish tracks of the living fungi from Yuggoth," is a characteristic Lovecraftian sentence ("The Whisperer in Darkness").


In his Introduction to The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories (Penguin Classics), S.T. Joshi reminds us that Lovecraft has to be appreciated "in the context of the philosophical thought that he evolved over a lifetime of study and observation. The core of that thought...is mechanistic materialism." Lovecraft dealt not with the supernatural but with the "supernormal," as Joshi puts it -- the unrealized side of material reality. The terrible possibilities he raises follow from that philosophy.


Sure, they're just stories -- and often kind of silly ones at that, though wickedly entertaining. Yet after reading him, you can't comfortably go back to the naïve Ken Miller way of thinking that Darwinian evolutionary was somehow certain to provide God with children over whom He would approve with the Biblical formulation, "And behold it was very good."

Fungi Not From Yuggoth: Lichens

Lichens are the dominant vegetation on 8% of the earth's terrestrial surface. If we stop being anthrocentric, we merely survive in a world dominated by battles between bacteria. and viruses. And even in our macroscopic world, we see trees, cows, and corn. In fact, our world is really worms, ants, and fungus. They simply tolerate us - when they don't devour us.

Today's alien shocker is lichen.

In Lovecraft's day, lichen was known to be some combination of a symbiosis - of fungus and algae. What we are now realizing is that the fungus CULTIVATES algae. It FARMS. (Ants realize this, and use fungus to eat things. They then snip off the blooms for nutrition, and suck the sugars fungus creates through digestion, but the fungus does the work.).

In honor of Lovecraft's penchant for things British, let's choose the British Soldier Lichen, Cladonia cristatella. It's only about 1/4-inch high (6 mm).
http://www.backyardnature.net/lichens.htm British Soldiers are usually found on decaying wood, soil, mossy logs, tree bases, and stumps.



It's pretty cool. The red is shockingly bright on the gray substructure.

Lichens are not always noticed, because they tend to grow heavier at the tops of trees and branches.

I don't have easy access to my pix at the moment. So, I'll use the stock one from Bernheim Forest. The society built an impressive walkout into the treetops in 2006, and one can walk straight out into an alien landscape that only squirrels, tree climbers, and lumberjacks can appreciate.



You quickly realize that trees ain't what they seem from the ground. They teem with life forms that are beyond our everyday ken. A zillion critters, and a hodge-podge of lichen, mistletoe, and witch's broom live in and on the trees.

In essence, a fungus exploits the damp bark of a tree and collects algae which it then uses as a food source. The algae has chlorophyl, soaks up sunlight, and the fungus uses that power to propagate. The algae spheres are entangled in a network of fungal tendrils, and the thick layers pile up year after year in a vast array of complexity.

Lichen are not even the weirdest forms of fungus out there. They just are interesting, easily accessed, and examples of the incredible sophisication these life forms are capable. Can they build spaceships and take advantage of quantum wormholes? Well, maybe not, but they can certainly dazzle ... like this image from a Discover Magazine blog.



Cedar Rust. The cedar apple rust fungus induces galls which in the spring produce wormlike growths.

As soon as I have the energy to upload some of my own photographs, I'll show you "Fungi I Have Known".

Life can be truly alien, and we need to be very afraid.

Fungi Not From Yuggoth: Fungi is Durable

In the 7 November Science News we find:

Microfossils that show up in large quantities in ancient rocks deposited during Earth’s largest mass extinction are fungal spores, not algae as some recent studies had proposed, new research suggests.

About 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, life on Earth had its closest call: In a geologically short period of time, a mass extinction claimed more than 95 percent of species in the oceans and 70 percent of those on land.

The researchers took samples of rock deposited during the late Permian extinctions, used strong acids to dissolve the minerals and then analyzed the organic matter that remained.

So what does this tell us about the durability of fungal life? That Lovecraft's instincts were good. We may not encounter bipedal fungus that wants to rip out our brains for an appetizer, but long before we came around, and long after we depart - fungus will be churning biomatter, and lactating enzymes.

Get used to our place in the cosmos. We're not at the top of the food chain - we are food. And there's a fungus out there with your name on it.

The Outer Beings are perhaps the most marvellous organic things in or beyond all space and time-members of a cosmos-wide race of which all other life-forms are merely degenerate variants. They are more vegetable than animal, if these terms can be applied to the sort of matter composing them, and have a somewhat fungoid structure; though the presence of a chlorophyll-like substance and a very singular nutritive system differentiate them altogether from true cormophytic fungi. Indeed, the type is composed of a form of matter totally alien to our part of space - with electrons having a wholly different vibration-rate.

JOHN H EDDY & CO 1878

JOHN H EDDY & CO~Brooms~Providence
1878
Billhead; Wooden Ware, Willow Ware, Paper Bags, Cords, etc;
Located at 5 & 7 Exchange Street, Providence, Rhode Island;

Size: Approx. 8 1/2 x 4 5/8;

Unknown if a relation to CM Eddy Jr

Fungi Not From Yuggoth

I'd like to start a new series.

Lovecraft chose vermin and the other atrocious things that he could imagine to conjure up shocking images of alienness. The mores of Lovecraft and his peers might have felt a thrill over seeing a polar bear or tiger, but rats, frogs, squids, spiders, and gross fungus were just a bother. They were considered disease ridden, useless things to be eradicated or trodden upon. He singled some of these out in his fiction as shock factors.

Mr. Henry David Thoreau might have a different opinion, as do biologists today, but to an average reader of horror stories in those days they were either objects of revulsion worse. Lovecraft's instincts were good - the exotic things he chose were usefull to propel the revulsion, to set the mood, and to build upon into even greater horrors.

Fungii from Yuggoth?

XIV. Star-Winds

It is a certain hour of twilight glooms,
Mostly in autumn, when the star-wind pours
Down hilltop streets, deserted out-of-doors,
But shewing early lamplight from snug rooms.
The dead leaves rush in strange, fantastic twists,
And chimney-smoke whirls round with alien grace,
Heeding geometries of outer space,
While Fomalhaut peers in through southward mists.

This is the hour when moonstruck poets know
What fungi sprout in Yuggoth, and what scents
And tints of flowers fill Nithon's continents,
Such as in no poor earthly garden blow.
Yet for each dream these winds to us convey,
A dozen more of ours they sweep away!

So whence fungi? The 1905 Encyclopedia Britannica is as good a source as any to see what Lovecraft might have thought of common fungus.





Multiplied pages are devoted to the current state of understanding of fungus from mushrooms, to beetle fungus, to lichen. Many important enzymes had already been extracted from lichen, and other species. But for Lovecraft, I think, he only wished to conjure up a sense of shudder, or revulsion in the common literate reader.

As to lichen, that common scum on trees - though usually found in the upper branches and trunks of trees - there is a small section of that "symbiosis".



What Mr. Lovecraft proposed as part jest, part shock, and part challenge to our senses, I believe we can explore: Less the letter of his exploration of "alien" and more of the spirit of "alien". As we move deeper into the 21st century, we need to be prepared that we are about to encounter alien forms of life that our minds may not be prepared.

With that in mind, Chrispy has often explored the essence of squids (and other cephalopods) to understand "Cthulhu". Now it's time to explore "fungi" to understand what Lovecraft was trying to say: That we are nearly irrelevant to the true life on our planet - and other planets.

It seems that the laws of nature do hold throughout our universe. Therefore, the rules of 'evolution' most probably apply. Simple chemical building blocks accumulate in warm areas of massive bodies, and therefore RNA, DNA, single cell organisms, worms, and more complex life most certainly form throughout the universe. Life will be virtually everywhere we look, as long as energy, and certain chemistries are present. It will take forms more strange than our imagination can dream - and yet be eerily familar. And it will be very, very dangerous to us.

Stay tuned ...

GHOSTS, CASTLES & VICTIMS

Anthology of Horror stories and excerpts from Gothic and horror novels- GHOSTS, CASTLES AND VICTIMS: TALES OF GOTHIC HORROR - from Fawcett/Crest books from 1974. Edited by JACK C. and BARBARA H. WOLF. Features storiesand novel excerpts by H.P. LOVECRAFT ("From Beyond"), M.R. JAMES, JOHN WYNDHAM, EDGAR ALLEN POE, ALGERNON BLACKWOOD, HORACE WALPOLE, ANN RADCLIFFE, MATTHEW G. LEWIS, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, BRAM STOKER, MARY SHELLY, HENRY JAMES, SAKI and others.

Cartoon Break ...

1929 A Hundred Years The Providence Journal Supplement

last of pages available

1929 A Hundred Years The Providence Journal Supplement

1929 A Hundred Years The Providence Journal Supplement

1929 A Hundred Years The Providence Journal Supplement

Ship Sunk By Demon of the Deep

Whether this is Lovecraftian, Fortean, or just plain weird ... here it is. Make of it as you will.
_____

Japanese fishing trawler sunk by giant jellyfish
A 10-ton fishing boat has been sunk by gigantic jellyfish off eastern Japan.

The trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba`as its three-man crew was trying to haul in a net containing dozens of huge Nomura's jellyfish.

Each of the jellyfish can weigh up to 200 kg and waters around Japan have been inundated with the creatures this year. Experts believe weather and water conditions in the breeding grounds, off the coast of China, have been ideal for the jellyfish in recent months.

The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

One of the largest jellyfish in the world, the species can grow up to 2 meters in diameter. The last time Japan was invaded on a similar scale, in the summer of 2005, the jellyfish damaged nets, rendered fish inedible with their toxic stings and even caused injuries to fishermen.

Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures.

The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

One of the largest jellyfish in the world, the species can grow up to 2 meters in diameter. The last time Japan was invaded on a similar scale, in the summer of 2005, the jellyfish damaged nets, rendered fish inedible with their toxic stings and even caused injuries to fishermen.

Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures.

The crew of the fishing boat was thrown into the sea when the vessel capsized, but the three men were rescued by another trawler, according to the Mainichi newspaper. The local Coast Guard office reported that the weather was clear and the sea was calm at the time of the accident.

One of the largest jellyfish in the world, the species can grow up to 2 meters in diameter. The last time Japan was invaded on a similar scale, in the summer of 2005, the jellyfish damaged nets, rendered fish inedible with their toxic stings and even caused injuries to fishermen.

Relatively little is known about Nomura's jellyfish, such as why some years see thousands of the creatures floating across the Sea of Japan on the Tsushima Current, but last year there were virtually no sightings. In 2007, there were 15,500 reports of damage to fishing equipment caused by the creatures.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/6483758/Japanese-fishing-trawler-sunk-by-giant-jellyfish.html