Jellyfish have been threatening the British coast, and are having an increasingly harmful effect on marine life as well as tourism. Mass stinging episodes on swimmers has occurred in the Mediterranean, and damage to several fish farms in the Black Sea and the Atlantic has transpired wiping out hundreds of fish.

Researchers from the University of Swansea and the University of Cork are planning to tag the jellyfish to study their behaviour and understand their movements. The project is called Ecojel and will explore the cycles of the jellyfish and test whether over fishing is responsible for the drastic rise in the number of jellyfish. Jellyfish feed on the same plankton that juvenile fish do, and if the fish numbers reduce due to fishing, the jellyfish population in turn will expand.

“This is a serious threat,” Professor Hays has said. “In 20 years’ time we may be looking at jellyfish and chips, rather than fish and chips.” The over fishing in our waters has allowed the jellyfish to feed freely and to take over entire ecosystems in the process. The new project is hoped to help scientists work out management strategies for fisheries so as to avoid problems with the increase in jellyfish.

Bookmark to:

Tags: Atlantic, Black Sea, damage, Ecojel, ecosystem, fish, invasion, jellyfish, overfish, strategy, university

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 at 9:13 am and is filed under Environment, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.