An inconvenient jellyfish

A mysterious goop stretching for 12 miles, floating off the coast of Alaska, has been befuddling scientists and alarming locals. This blackish substance swept up birds and jellyfish, and tangled marine life in its wake into a mess of fibrous matter. It has recently been identified as an algae bloom but scientists initially struggled to identify this mass of organisms.

No doubt the blob's appearance and potential impact on the ecosystem will be a source of further study, but in general these studies can be dishearteningly tricky. I've shown in some other posts how jellyfish can have a huge impact on other species, as well as human activity, so it's alarming that they don't receive the attention they need from scientists.

The Environmental News Network (ENN) quoted a senior marine scientist as admitting that jellies are not even in most existing ecosystem models. How can a realistic account of an ecosystem be created with jellyfish out of the picture, and why are they being omitted?

The University of British Columbia found that only around a quarter of the most popular marine ecosystem models account for jellyfish, and when they do, they "collapse all things considered gelatinous into a single functional 'jellyfish' group". This means their role in undersea life isn't properly considered.

Jellyfish life cycles are already tricky to track, and the ENN suggests that another factor in ignoring the jellies is their supposed lack of relevance to the fishing industry. Research naturally occurs where the money is, so a study of cod is likely to gain more funding than jellyfish.

However, as the impact of jellyfish blooms on fish farms continues to be felt from Northern Ireland to Japan, and jellyfish becomes more widely promoted as a tasty treat, funding for their study is bound to surge. Hopefully this will happen before they have smothered many more fisheries.