MSilvia
Contributor
If this works, it would be nice to see it used in more widespread applications for forecasting the location of marine life... both dangerous and otherwise.
Stinging Jellyfish in Forecast for Chesapeake Bay
Fri Jul 19, 1:14 PM ET
By Katherine Hunt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sun-and-sea worshipers plagued by stinging jellyfish during their Chesapeake Bay vacations can now try to track the whereabouts of the annoying creatures by consulting Web-based forecasts, according to a new study.
The forecasts are based on a circulation model of the Chesapeake Bay that maps how warm and how salty the water is.
"Potentially, we could use these as a warning system," said Raleigh Hood, of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, one the authors of the study.
"For example, based on what we know, we predict that this is going to be a bad year for sea nettles, because of the dry conditions we're having," Hood said in a telephone interview.
Sea nettles, known scientifically as Chrysoprase quinquenniad, are the jellyfish most common in the Chesapeake Bay and are found up and down the East Coast. They like warm water with a moderate level of salt -- and the range they like is specific.
The severe drought has reduced freshwater inflow into the Chesapeake, increasing the estuary's salinity. Because saltiness is a major factor in determining the distribution of sea nettles, the forecast shows the stinging jellyfish will be found further north in the bay than normal this year.
"A big bunch of the Chesapeake Bay is too fresh for sea nettles," Hood said. "When you have a drought, more of the bay has an appropriate salinity for sea nettles. And it makes it so the sea nettles can live in the bay earlier in the year," he said.
"Sea nettles are ideal organisms for evaluating this (forecasting) approach" because salinity and sea-surface temperature can be observed in near-real time, said oceanographer Christopher Brown of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and lead author of the study.
The forecast, which can be seen on the Internet at http://coastwatch.noaa.gov/seanettles, shows the likelihood of sea nettles in the Chesapeake Bay and its major tributaries, including the Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers.
Once the sea nettle model is refined and validated, Brown said the team would like to extend the techniques to other "noxious organisms," such as algal blooms, which cause shellfish poisoning and negatively affect tourism worldwide.
"We believe the approach described here, in conjunction with new technological capabilities, is a powerful tool that holds great promise for achieving biological oceanography's age-old goal of predicting the distribution pattern for organism's in the ocean," the team writes in their report, which appears in the July 23 issue of Eos, published by the American Geophysical Union.
The sea nettle's long tentacles contain millions of microscopic stinging cells that inject toxins to capture and paralyze prey, as well as defend the creature from would-be predators. Lightweight clothing or a layer of petroleum jelly on the skin will protect swimmers from stings.
The forecasting model was developed by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at College of William and Mary.
Stinging Jellyfish in Forecast for Chesapeake Bay
Fri Jul 19, 1:14 PM ET
By Katherine Hunt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sun-and-sea worshipers plagued by stinging jellyfish during their Chesapeake Bay vacations can now try to track the whereabouts of the annoying creatures by consulting Web-based forecasts, according to a new study.
The forecasts are based on a circulation model of the Chesapeake Bay that maps how warm and how salty the water is.
"Potentially, we could use these as a warning system," said Raleigh Hood, of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, one the authors of the study.
"For example, based on what we know, we predict that this is going to be a bad year for sea nettles, because of the dry conditions we're having," Hood said in a telephone interview.
Sea nettles, known scientifically as Chrysoprase quinquenniad, are the jellyfish most common in the Chesapeake Bay and are found up and down the East Coast. They like warm water with a moderate level of salt -- and the range they like is specific.
The severe drought has reduced freshwater inflow into the Chesapeake, increasing the estuary's salinity. Because saltiness is a major factor in determining the distribution of sea nettles, the forecast shows the stinging jellyfish will be found further north in the bay than normal this year.
"A big bunch of the Chesapeake Bay is too fresh for sea nettles," Hood said. "When you have a drought, more of the bay has an appropriate salinity for sea nettles. And it makes it so the sea nettles can live in the bay earlier in the year," he said.
"Sea nettles are ideal organisms for evaluating this (forecasting) approach" because salinity and sea-surface temperature can be observed in near-real time, said oceanographer Christopher Brown of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and lead author of the study.
The forecast, which can be seen on the Internet at http://coastwatch.noaa.gov/seanettles, shows the likelihood of sea nettles in the Chesapeake Bay and its major tributaries, including the Susquehanna and Potomac Rivers.
Once the sea nettle model is refined and validated, Brown said the team would like to extend the techniques to other "noxious organisms," such as algal blooms, which cause shellfish poisoning and negatively affect tourism worldwide.
"We believe the approach described here, in conjunction with new technological capabilities, is a powerful tool that holds great promise for achieving biological oceanography's age-old goal of predicting the distribution pattern for organism's in the ocean," the team writes in their report, which appears in the July 23 issue of Eos, published by the American Geophysical Union.
The sea nettle's long tentacles contain millions of microscopic stinging cells that inject toxins to capture and paralyze prey, as well as defend the creature from would-be predators. Lightweight clothing or a layer of petroleum jelly on the skin will protect swimmers from stings.
The forecasting model was developed by scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science at College of William and Mary.
