That's smuck, not schmuck. And it's the official term for a swarm of jellyfish, according to Jonathan in the last jellyfish post. The name was just created in 2000 (the need for a name for a swarm of jellyfish, just another shifting baseline). Apparently, after wiping out Northern Ireland's only salmon farm, the smuck has now moved on to Scotland.
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In what was probably the largest Thanksgiving feast this week, a swarm of billions of jellyfish attacked a salmon farm in Northern Ireland yesterday and ate $2 million worth of fish. Jellyfish and slime are taking over the oceans, just as Dr. Jeremy Jackson always warns. Billions of jellyfish…
Yesterday, from Seafood.com News:
Scientists are criss-crossing the Irish Sea on ferries, counting stinger jellyfish which are blamed for wiping out salmon stocks...Scientists suspect global warming is the principal cause of the jellyfish shoals...The Natural Environment Research Council has given…
Last night at dinner, I asked whether a group of jellyfish was called a 'smuck' or a 'smack' to settle the debate on the blog last week. Though Wikipedia cites collective jellies as a 'smack', the three scientists I was eating with agreed it was 'smuck' and we even went to a big, tattered 1993…
All the writing about the Big 3, fueled an appetite for salmon. I thought what better way to start off every day this week with a little smoked salmon on bagel. Not two hours after I wrote the Big 3 post, I was purchasing smoke salmon from a grocer in my area who promotes their green image.
O'…
A similar thing hit Japan some months ago. Honestly, wipe out all the predator fish which would have kept jellyfish larvae in check, what do they expect will happen?
The word "schmuck" does have a certain applicability here, as well.
The only time I've ever heard "smuck" used is by Jonathan. In my experience, "smack" is more common, but I think both are acceptable?
Well, I've noticed that a lot of these collective nouns for animals tend to vary, and 2000 seems long enough past to be in another lifetime. I'm fairly certain we used the term "Smuck" though, as there was definitely emphasis on the fact that it was "Different than Schmuck" and I always used the jelly company "Smuckers" to remember it :)I could certainly be wrong though!
Come to think of it, I have heard 'smack' before. And Wiki seems to agree. One thing for sure, we're going to have to nail down the term as the event becomes more and more common!