China is testing a new weapon to destroy one of the biggest threats to its aircraft carriers

The threat of jellyfish to aircraft carriers is very real, as floating invertebrates can be sucked into the water intake pipes of ships and clog cooling systems.

Illustrative photo

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China is testing a new weapon to destroy one of the biggest threats to its aircraft carriers: the annoying jellyfish. Known as the ' jellyfish crusher ', this Chinese weapon simply destroys the aguavivas by  cutting them into thousands of pieces  of no more than 3 centimeters, reports the   South China Post newspaper .

The threat of these animals to aircraft carriers is very real, as they can be sucked through the water intake pipes of ships and clog cooling systems. This, in turn, can cause the motors to be suspended, which overheat.

The 'jellyfish crusher' is  a huge network , several hundred meters long, with a set of sharp blades in the middle. This net is towed by a boat that travels at high speed using the force of the currents to suck the jellyfish towards the blades.

The Chinese Liaoning aircraft carrier sails to Hong Kong, China, on July 7, 2017. / Bobby Yip / Reuters

This machine to annihilate jellyfish mass leaves a  trail of destruction  in its wake, as the water becomes cloudy by the fragments of the so-called tears of the sea, which begin to decompose the day after the operation.

In that sense, researchers warned that the method could cause  environmental problems . For example, the tentacles of a dead jellyfish could affect bathers. On the other hand, the contact of the skin with the jellyfish poison can cause  intense pain, inflammation or even death . Another negative effect of this weapon is that if the crusher captures pregnant jellyfish, it could release a large number of fertilized eggs, which would produce more  outbreaks  in the next season. 

Another team of researchers, the Urban Robotics Lab of the Korean university KAIST, created a similar machine and published a video showing how to spray the animals.

In January 2006, a swarm of creatures 'attacked' the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier while it was docked in Brisbane, Australia. The jellyfish were sucked by the capacitors of the boat, paralyzing them until the technicians could clean them.