Biology, Zoology and Marine Science Mrs. Stahl

 Jellyfish as Monitors of Ocean Health

 Marine Science Text

 Ask yourself- what do I know about jellies?  They are mushy and gooey  They sting  They have tentacles  There are many species  The box jelly is the most dangerous one  They are clear / transparent

 Page 549 in your textbook

 1. Increased population of jellyfish in our world’s oceans  2. Overpopulated because of pollution, global warming (increased water temps), overfishing, and oxygen depletion.  3. They are taking over our oceans.  4. Nothing eats them  5. They could possibly deplete our plankton and effect ecotourism.

 This article relates to Marine Science because jellyfish are one of millions of creatures that are studied in our worlds oceans. They affect the ocean food web by eating large quantities of plankton which is the basis of our ocean food web. If they continue to overpower our oceans then the entire food web will diminish. This is important to study because nothing eats jellies and they will soon deplete the plankton population if we don’t find a solution.

 Jellyfish are animals that thrive in damaged environments. The worse the environment the more populated they will become. Jellyfish are severe problems in Australia, the Gulf of Mexico, Hawaii, the Black Sea and several other locations. They are overpopulated because they don’t have any natural predators due to overfishing, rising sea temperatures are causing them to rapidly reproduce, and the increased amount of pollution has depleted the oxygen in the water causing other animals to die and jellyfish to thrive.

 I think that the overpopulation of jellyfish could become a colossal problem in the future. We should be greatly concerned about the overpopulation of these species because if we aren’t then they are going to take over our oceans. When we go to the beach we won’t be able to swim, scuba dive, snorkel, or even recreationally fish. It could cause the fishing industry to rapidly decline as well. Some possible solutions to this problem would be to place stricter limits and regulations on fishing, decrease the amount of run- off and pollution dumped into our oceans, and to try to be “green” as much as possible so that we can limit the amount of carbon dioxide being absorbed in our oceans.

 1. Is there one species over another becoming overpopulated?  2. What conservation efforts are being done to help control this problem?

 1. Overfishing- the capture of fish faster than they can reproduce and replace themselves.  2. Sedimentation- The settlement of particles from suspension in water, usually accumulating on the seafloor. Causes really cloudy water.  3. Plankton- Organisms that float or drift in the sea’s currents.