Joewr and Jellyfish Research

[uwsince79]

Please tell us all you have learned about jellyfish.
You have been doing quite a bit of research on the topic and we would like to know more.

 

[ScubaBaby]

Jellyfish are the only thing that I really dont even like the look of let alone getting near...it would be good to know what I am so scared of!

 

[Rick Murchison]

Oh my, you must look... Free swimming Cnidarians, jellyfish, are wonderful, fascinating critters. With a little care you can get quite close to even many of the ones that sting - just avoid the box bubbas and the Portugese Man-o-War and the Lion's Mane. There are many jellys that don't sting at all or have such short tentacles as to be no factor. One beautiful example in the Gulf is the Moon Jelly - gets huge - up to two feet across the bell - it has tiny little tentacles barely an inch long, and it always has a crop of jellyfish fish living right up under the bell (jellyfish fish in this case are tiny juvenile jacks). Neat!
And there are a host of small ones that are really wonderful - all shapes from ones that look like walnuts to ones that look like ribbons and everything in between - many of 'em will put on a marvelous light show at night too.
Do look at 'em.
They're neat critters indeed.
Rick

 

[ScubaBaby]

Just reading about getting close to them makes me feel ill - they really do give me the creeps!

 

[joewr]

Well, Sportsfans,

I would be happy to let you peruse the following web sites. I scoured the net and went through the library and these seemed to be amongst the most readable.

I was not a real fan of these critters until I got a full wet suit and had a chance to look at them up close and personal without fear of stings.

Once you do that, you can really enjoy looking at their structure since they are translucent. When you observe them closely you can see all sorts of structure, beautiful lines and figures. They are amongst the most primative of large organisms that live in the sea and harken back to a primordial world which probably featured only marine life.

At any rate, take a peek that these and save me the work of digesting them for you...after all it is Friday evening!

http://www.aqua.org/animals/species/jellies.html

http://www.masla.com/jellyfish.html

http://water.dnr.state.sc.us/marine/pub/seascience/jellyfi.html

There is another site that features the Portuguese Man-o-War, but it seems to have trouble loading now. So, I will wait till it gets sorted out and post it then.

I hope you will get over your initial fear and revulsion and enjoy these critters...heck, you can look at them here with absolutely no fear of stings...and maybe it will create enough curiousity about them that you will spend a little time watching for them on your next safety stop.

Joewr...who watched one for 5 min on a safety stop once--even played with it...with a gloved hand, though.

 

[Butch103]

away from Syruss if you are afraid of jellyfish ......!!!!

He is even scarier....

Butch eace:

(just kidden bro)

 

[Liquid]

I can tell you something interesting about jelly-fish in Israel's costs- Mediterranian and the red sea.

Originaly, there weren't Jelly-fish in the medditeranian. The jelly-fish migrated through the suez cannal.

There are several interesting facts here:

The red sea is saltier than the mediterenian (you need about 4 pounds more than in other seas). The suez cannal made it possible for species that were unique to tropical areas to migrate into the mediterenian. However, migration in the other way is impossible, becouse though it is possible to tolerate less salt, it is impossible to tolerate more salt. So now we have also several new kinds of fish in the mediterranian sea.

The kinds of jelly-fish that migrated to the mediterranian had some changes, due to the changed envirement. First of all they got BIG. can get to 2-3 feet in diameter, while no more than half a feet in the red sea. Another thing is, that while those same species are completly harmless in the red sea (I used to frighten students by throwing jelly-fish on the annoying ones) they become quite stinging in the mediteranian. There are several stinging kinds in the red sea as well, but those didnt migrate.

Just my .02$
Thought it might be interesting

 

[joewr]

Fellow Jellyfish Aficianados,

Here is one more from Great Britain, in honor of Scubababy's affection for the little critters. I am working on something for Liquid, but that will take a little more time...

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/BMLSS/cnidaria.htm

Joewr...resident Board Jellyfisherman

 

[Fishkiller]

I doubt you'll be diving with me anytime soon It's seems all I can do is find jellyfish.


Has my knowledge of jellyfish increased because of my encounter yes, I'll share some with you..


The prettier they look the more they hurt.

 

[keralucu]

Abby - some jellies are beautiful... I saw some once that fascinated me, no idea what type but they definitely weren't stingers. The reason they caught my eye was because they were flashing amazing lights and this was in broad daylight! They were small, could easily fit two in my hand and the lighting effect was like the alien from The Abyss.... know what I mean?

I was mesmerised.