Untangling the human-jellyfish connection

Last month's mini-symposium Q-quatics 2019: Road Ahead has been productive, providing a means for Q-quatics to communicate possibilities to execute its fisheries and oceans mandate through collaborations with the global scientific community.

Many participants took an interest in the talk of Lucas Brotz, jellyfish expert and Q-Quatics Cnidaria Scientist, as he shared the ever growing, inevitable relationship of humans and jellyfish today.

Based on a rigorous study Brotz led, jellyfish populations, indeed, have been increasing since 1950: out of the 45 large marine ecosystems (LMEs) analyzed, 62% showed increasing trends [1]. This brought with it changes that we are only now seeing—more reports of children dying from box jellyfish stings [4], swarms of jellyfish regularly interrupting fishing activities [2], jellyfish responsible for massive power failure in Luzon [3], and jellyfish turning into snacks [4]. While the demand for jellyfish for food has increased, huge economic losses are incurred by many related industries [4].

Fig. 1. Map of population trends of native and invasive species of jellyfish by large marine ecosystem (LME) (Source: Brotz et al. 2012)

A regular day for fishermen in Japan, clearing the infestations of Nomura (Copyright: Shin-ichi Uye, Hiroshima University)

Counter-measures to control jellyfish populations have been done but with mixed results. A more apparent move, to exploit jellyfish as food, was seen as an opportunity to deter this global rise. However, as Brotz pointed out, eating our way out isn't the likely solution. Rather, adaptation may be our best approach [4]. 

_________
Sources:
[1] Brotz, L., Cheung, W. W., Kleisner, K., Pakhomov, E., & Pauly, D. (2012). Increasing jellyfish populations: trends in large marine ecosystems. In Jellyfish Blooms IV (pp. 3-20). Springer, Dordrecht. Retrieved from https://bit.ly/2Ea4tvi

[2] Vince, G. (2012, April 5). Jellyfish blooms creating oceans of slime. BBC. Retrieved from https://bbc.in/2hLG1Cc

[3] BBC (1999, December 11). Jellyfish blamed for Philippines blackout. BBC News.  Retrieved from https://bbc.in/2LHCIv2

[4] Brotz, L. (2019, January 31). Jellyfish and humans - the big picture. Q-quatics 2019: road ahead symposium. 

Q-quatics holds a mini-symposium

Q-quatics launches its year with a mini-symposium held at IRRI Training Center in Los Baños, Laguna last January 31. Local and international marine scientists shared emerging issues on fisheries: from (1) small-scale fisheries academy in Senegal, to (2) global assessment of exploited marine fisheries, to (3) a new analysis of global freshwater finfisheries, to (4) ballast water management, to (5) jellyfish-human relationship, to (6) the use of global databases as identification tools, and (7) the FAO global record of stocks and fisheries. If you're keen to know more about the symposium, you may read Mundus maris piece here. 

Participants, both local and international—UPLB, UP Diliman, BFAR-NFRDI, NAST, National Museum, Haribon Foundation, RARE, ASEAN Center for Biodiversity, Amanpulo Resort, Oceana Philippines, Wetlands International and IRRI—contributed to a lively and productive discussion.

Cornelia E. Nauen, Q-Quatics Board of Trustee

Speakers: Top left to right: Dr. Maria Lourdes Palomares, Dr. Peter Sorensen, Dr. Benjamin Vallejo Jr.;
Bottom left to right:  Dr. Lucas Brotz, Mr. Rodolfo Reyes Jr. and Dr. Nicolas Bailly

This event became an avenue to conceive possible projects, form partnerships and strengthen existing ones with different organizations. These possibilities include the next steps inherent to the declaration of ASEAN being a "safe risk area" for international shipping, call for increased awareness in the importance of freshwater fisheries, conducting jellyfish population studies in the Philippines, and developing machine learning tools for fish identification.