Kate Wing's Blog
When life gives you jellies
November 27, 2007
Posted by Kate Wing in Reviving the World's Oceans
Make jellyfish ice cream. That's the message from Japan's Tango Jersey Dairy, which is trying to capitalize on the now regular invasion of giant Nomura Jellyfish. Maybe they can give the Scots the recipe, since a second swarm of purple stinger jellyfish is massing off the UK coast. Swarm II comes on the heels of a mass of purple jellies that killed 10,000 salmon in an aquaculture farm off the Irish Coast a week ago.
Before they became local cuisine, jellyfish blooms were good news only for turtles and the giant ocean sunfish. How you get to be 500 pounds eating only jellyfish, I don't know, but that's the mola mola for you. Both of these species of jellies are full of nematocysts, the stinging cells that make them dangerous to fish and unpleasant for fishermen pulling them out of their nets. And yet they are quite fragile; captive jellies require special tanks that support their gelatinous bodies with gentle currents.
Japanese scientists are puzzling over what's causing their jellyfish blooms. Could be changes in salinity or water temperature, or maybe more nutrients stimulating growth in the algae and zooplankton the jellies feed upon. The Wall Street Journal article has a great quote by a Chinese scientist who seems to be missing the significance of ocean currents:
"No research evidence in China supports a connection between pollution and jellyfish," says Li Qi, a dean of the Ocean University of China. "Floating jellyfish are mostly in the Sea of Japan....That's Japan and Korea's problem."
Really now, ocean problems are everyone's problems. There's plenty of evidence that jellyfish populations fluctuate with changes in salinity, which is related to freshwater inflow, aka how much you dam up your rivers. Overfishing is a global problem, not only reducing fish populations directly but also incidentally catching those turtles who eat the jellies. If we can't all pitch in to find out what's calling the jellyfish blooms next door, who's going to help us when our bays are full of jellies?
Want to taste jellyfish ice cream? Brush up on your Japanese and order online.
(bookmark or email this entry)
