In Baltic Sea, Reproduction Confirmed In Same Invasive Jellyfish That Wrecked Black Sea Fisheries

[hatrack]

A team of German and Danish researchers has found evidence that the warty comb jellyfish (Mnemiopsis leidyi) may be increasing the threat to cod stocks in the Baltic Sea. The jellyfish, which is indigenous to the North American East coast, is likely to have been introduced into the Baltic Sea by shipping traffic and feeds on zooplankton (as do the fish) as well as fish larvae and eggs. The findings are reported in the journal 'Marine ecology progress series'.

The discovery, which needs to be backed up by further research, the scientists say, was made during an expedition supported by the EU through the European Network of Excellence for Ocean Ecosystems Analysis (EUR-OCEANS) and the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the GLOBEC Germany project. The area where the jellyfish were found, the Bornholm Basin, is the most important breeding ground for cod in the Baltic Sea.

'As soon as we saw the eggs inside the warty comb jelly, we knew which effects this organism could have on the entire planktonic ecosystem of the Baltic Sea,' says Holger Haslob of the Leibniz Institute for Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany, the lead author of the joint study by the IFM-GEOMAR and the Danish Institute for Fisheries Research.

The find confirms the researchers' suspicion that the invasive species will threaten the survival of the cod in its early life stages, adding to the pressure from overfishing and environmental pollution that the cod stock has been suffering from for years. In addition, the jellyfish's feeding behaviour might have a lasting effect on the entire ecosystem, as cod is one of the species at the top of the food chain in the Baltic Sea.

EDIT

http://cordis.europa.eu/fetch?CALLER=EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN=29085

[kestrel91316]

1. Time for everybody to develop a taste for all manner of jellyfish.

Dried Jellyfish with Cucumber (Goi Sua Tom Thit)
http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/5619.html

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Dried jellyfish is considered to be a delicacy in many Asian countries. Jellyfish are also purported to have beneficial medicinal properties and are traditionally used to treat ailments such as arthritis, hypertension and back pain (Hsieh et al. 2001). Jellyfish have been harvested off the coast of China for more than 1700 years (Omori & Nakano 2001) but since the 1970s the catch has been increasing, almost exponentially, and in recent years the annual world harvest has exceeded 500,000 tonnes (Fig. 1).
http://thescyphozoan.ucmerced.edu/Biol/Ecol/CoastMan/Fisheries.html

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Nutrition Facts and Analysis for Jellyfish, dried, salted

http://www.nutritiondata.com/facts-C00001-01c220F.html