Between massive swarms and habitat invasions, jellyfish are changing ecosystems, stinging beachgoers, and causing millions of dollars’ worth of damage. Using high-tech underwater gadgets, scientists are racing to understand one of the most common, mysterious—and destructive—sea creatures
Posted 06.04.2008 at 4:12 pm
17 Comments
Proper Fit: A deep-sea diver fits a giant Nomura’s jellyfish with a sensor that will transmit data about the depth and temperature of the waters it visits. Yomiuri Shimbun
A Tale of Two Jellies
Comb jellies provide a dramatic example of invasive species at work. The American comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi), sometimes called the warty comb jelly, has been spreading to foreign habitats for 26 years. Native to the Atlantic Ocean, they first appeared in the Black Sea in 1982. They had stowed away in a ship’s ballast water, which is used for stabilization. When the water was dumped, the species eagerly took up residence in the area.
Jellies eat by filtering food from water. In their constant search for grub, small species like American comb jellies sift through approximately a gallon of seawater every day, says Keith Bayha, a marine biologist at the University of California at Merced. A gallon may not sound like a lot, until you consider the sheer number of individuals eating their way through the food supply. By 1989, when the Black Sea’s population of the invasive species peaked, some areas held more than 14 jellies per square foot. This caused a total collapse of local fisheries specializing in anchovies and sardines—fish that feed on the same plankton the jellies eat. To add insult to injury, the jellies were devouring not just the fish’s food, but their eggs and young as well.
The species went on to invade nearby waters—including the eastern Mediterranean and the Caspian Sea, which borders Russia to the east and Iran to the south—with similar environmental and economic damage as in the Black Sea. In 2006, biologists sounded the alarm farther north when American comb jellies were first discovered in Dutch, Danish and Swedish waters. One study found approximately 25 of them per cubic foot off the coast of Denmark last year. Experts fear that such swarms may threaten the area’s cod population, which has already been depleted by overfishing and pollution.
Ironically, it took one non-native species to conquer another. The American comb jelly’s arch-nemesis is the brown comb jelly (Beroe ovata), which feeds on it. Scientists introduced brown comb jellies to the Black Sea in the 1990s, successfully checking the American comb jelly invasion. According to Bayha, plans may now be under way to bring brown comb jellies to the Caspian Sea to remedy the problem there, but there is no guarantee that they won’t become invasive themselves. As for the rest of Scandinavia, certain comb jellies are native there, but biologists do not yet know if they will prey on the invading species. Harsh Scandinavian temperatures during the winter may limit the American comb jellies’ success there, since they seem to thrive in warm conditions. Only time will tell for sure.
Understanding the Shift
The introduction of comb jellies into new habitats by ballast water isn’t an isolated case. Two non-native jellyfish were brought to North America at least in part by ballast water, according to the Nature Conservancy, a Virginia-based environmental organization. In 2000, scientists observed one of these two species, Australia’s spotted jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata), in a bloom of approximately 5.5 million jellies across 57 square miles in the Gulf of Mexico near Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.
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from Winnipeg, Manitoba
Well lets assume this is creature visually remains identical to its ancestors, and that It probably evolved from one of the more ancient periods of the past, like when some of the first multi-celled organisms manifested.This took part after the cellular advance of plants, which evolved to Flesh Life. Also why the world was a forest, because plants are smart in terms of having the largest genetic mass over the Earth. Mabye the one Plant that is poisonous to this creature or even its predator is exint.
Look to something synthetic and biodegradable to control there population, humanely.
I would agree with Sir DarkFx humane treatment is prefered but this is human kind were talking about here. They were here first but there hurting our prime vacation spots so they must be eliminated... right? Well it seems that environmental changes are causing the planets animals to react... who would have thought that would happen. Woud it be possible to imagine there preditor and or poisonous counterpart has not been found in this astoundingly large ocean?
~Taio~
Dear readers,
Any creature that poots where it eats is a foul creature and must be destroyed at all costs.
Positively,
Boka
Well boka thats a positively inteligent way to think of it but in this case im going to have to ask... did you wash your hands the last time you "pooted".... well in that case get in the line up destruction awaits.
~Taio~
Of course another species will take over. This is the result of reckless overfishing.
I'm sorry I had to sign up and comment just once and this is all I have to say.....NO ONE CARES WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY AT THE END OF THESE ARTICLES, PLEASE REFRAIN FROM PUTTING IN YOUR 2 CENTS BECAUSE I HAVE A NASTY HABIT OF READING THEM THINKING IT WILL BE AN INTELLIGENT VIEWPOINT COVERING WHAT I JUST READ. YOU PARTICULARLY DARKFX YOU ARE THE KING OF THE NERDS, YOU HAVE AN ANSWER TO EVERYTHING SO DO THE WORLD A SERVICE AND FIX ALL OF OUR PROBLEMS. IT'S OBVIOUS YOUR SMART ENOUGH TO DO SO. Please don't respond to this comment in an attempt to defend your own dignity, instead think about what I said and don't, from your computer chair in your one bedroom apartment or parent's basement, indulge in your own sense of egotism and self-worth. Just take a deep breath and try not to say stupid things anymore, better yet keep your comments to yourself unless you really can change the world which I doubt you can because those able to do so don't spend there time commenting on jellyfish articles acting like a know-it-all. Good-bye and good luck trying to bite your tongue from now on.
from Jacksonville, Florida
KND 123
What is wrong with you?! You have other problems that you need to address having nothing to do with the quality of Darkfx's text. Lock yourself in a room with some self help books until you are able to say "I really like myself and have no need to belittle others to stoke my fragile self-esteem"
To paraphrase Morissey "....it's so easy to laugh/ so easy to hate/ it takes strength to be gentle and kind..."
On jellies...strictures on bilge water and trawling will go a long way in correcting the imbalance that has allowed them to flourish.
i agree with dark, they do need to be controlled of. you can agrue that we should kill them for our own needs, because of fishing, but if we let this go un touched, we may just have a jellyfish ocean. i mean the temperature is on the rise, people are over fsihing, i mean somthing is going to happen and its easy to see. fish are just going to die form them. maybe we should find a way to fish them and turn them into a food, then there populations will go down and well have food. but also with a control on global warming too other wise its not worth it because it will keep getting hotter and hotter
I both agree and disagree with bits and pieces of all statements previously made.
I used to work in a Marine Lab in Hawaii and I will have to agree that something does need to be done with the differing jellyfish population booms. One of the largest roles that lead to their over-abundance now is because humans have altered the ecological balance of the ocean.
With the devastation we caused on populations such as the leather back and green sea turtles that naturally prey on jellyfish, it's a no-brainer that the jellyfish population would increase just based off of that. Throw in the whales and their decreased numbers into the equation -- both baleen and toothed whales -- and the jellyfish food supply skyrockets as well.
This also doesn't even touch upon what the article included with the inadvertent transport and relocation of non-indigenous jellyfish species and pollution of the oceans causing problems we can only guess at.
Exactly WHAT needs to be done I will not comment on. My only advice is that we understand a little more about this jelly of a predicament before we actually try and do something like introducing non-indigenous jellyfish predators without taking into full consideration the impact it would have on other native species. I do agree that something does need to be done, whether it is to more strictly enforce poaching laws on animals such as sea turtles, and waiting for nature's balance to slowly take over, or to more invasively try and play God by killing off whatever we deem necessary -- something needs to be done to correct our mistakes before it gets worse.
from Dublin, Ohio
(Darkfx) "Well lets assume this is creature visually remains identical to its ancestors, and that It probably evolved from one of the more ancient periods of the past, like when some of the first multi-celled organisms manifested.This took part after the cellular advance of plants, which evolved to Flesh Life. Also why the world was a forest, because plants are smart in terms of having the largest genetic mass over the Earth. Mabye the one Plant that is poisonous to this creature or even its predator is exint."
Sorry but u are wrong. The only plants that were around when jellyfish first came about was algae, there were no land plants. and the idea that a plant turned into a flesh animal is just down right dumb. Don't comment on what you don't know.
sorry again
from Dublin, Ohio
(Darkfx) "Well lets assume this is creature visually remains identical to its ancestors, and that It probably evolved from one of the more ancient periods of the past, like when some of the first multi-celled organisms manifested.This took part after the cellular advance of plants, which evolved to Flesh Life. Also why the world was a forest, because plants are smart in terms of having the largest genetic mass over the Earth. Mabye the one Plant that is poisonous to this creature or even its predator is exint."
Sorry but u are wrong. The only plants that were around when jellyfish first came about was algae, there were no land plants. and the idea that a plant turned into a flesh animal is just down right dumb. Don't comment on what you don't know.
sorry again
Okay me and DarkFX got totally ripped and debated how earth started and then he went on Popsci and commented. It made perfect sense at the time.
from Danielson, CT
Its interesting to see that something we have never had a use for has come to bite us in the @ss. We have over-mined everything we wanted or needed to the point we will one day no longer have it. What will we be left with? Everything that we deem unnecessary or dangerous. What a future to look forward to. I'm sure through the stress of uncertainty we will find a use for it all, but a beautiful prospect nevertheless. As every creature coexisting on this planet, we all deserve what we get. I think we should get special torturous treatment, though.
Hey, Betterfuture4uandme:
The idea that jellyfish are ancient and super-primitive life forms is out of date. According to research conducted in the last decade, jellyfish aren't so simple. Once thought to be pre-Cambrian, they are now held to be part of the explosion (540 million yrs ago).
Ref: NYT, 2005
Wow, that's intense! It reminds me of that one level in Super Mario Bros 3 when all of the jellyfish swarm. I suppose this could actually turn into a pretty big problem, if not dealt with.
- Stacy, (http://www.myfda.org/)
from Winnipeg, Manitoba
Betterfuture4uandme <
Plants Life was Created in Water. Quite Possibly because of Hydrogen and Organic Matter in Clouds, in Space.
In the Ocean after Freshwater perhaps. Plants became aware of land eventually, obviously. Why else is all Cellular with such basic compounds so Similar. Life Communicating with chemical signals plants and humans alike. Let alone the simple fact that all life has to many similar traits to not be related. For instance, Eyes and Skin Mouth, Digestive Tract... Like a Worm.
www.darkfx.cjb.net
Jellyfish are definitely more advanced than we think. They are incredible successful. They should be our masters.
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