NY Times is at it again

The New York Times "reports" that jellyfish are increasing, and it's our fault:

From Spain to New York, to Australia, Japan and Hawaii, jellyfish are becoming more numerous and more widespread, and they are showing up in places where they have rarely been seen before, scientists say. The faceless marauders are stinging children blithely bathing on summer vacations, forcing beaches to close and clogging fishing nets.

But while jellyfish invasions are a nuisance to tourists and a hardship to fishermen, for scientists they are a source of more profound alarm, a signal of the declining health of the world’s oceans. […]

Within the past year, there have been beach closings because of jellyfish swarms on the Côte d’Azur in France, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia, and at Waikiki and Virginia Beach in the United States.

The Times, however, isn't quite the authority on such things it pretends to be, as the local Virginian-Pilot reports:

Virginia Beach officials could not recall a time when the beach had been closed due to jellyfish.

Capt. Tom Gill, head of Virginia Beach lifeguards, saw the story and said everyone at the lifesaving service was puzzled. “It’s been about average,” he said of the summer’s jellyfish reports. “We get days when we get more. We haven’t seen any days this year that have been worse than any days in the past. It's been a nice summer.”

Jellyfish are a common occurrence that swimmers and lifeguards expect, he said. “It’s just one of those things. We hear it, we see it. It happens during the summer.”

According to David Malmquist, director of communications at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, there’s just not enough data locally to determine if jellyfish numbers are rising.

How can you trust The Times to report anything accurately, when they are so easily caught simply making stuff up?