Long Island Sound Jellyfish

The marine fisheries people at the Connecticut DEP have been getting questions about jellyfish and seeing the stories about them (here's a previous post), so they included some information and charts in their regular water quality monitoring email. The charts get bigger (and therefore comprehensible) if you click on them.

This map shows the places in Long Island Sound where they trawl for zooplankton, and which kids of jellyfish they find at each place. Out east, they get moon jellies; in the far west they get ctenophores (comb jellies); in between they get lion’s mane jellies and ctenophores.

When they catch these animals – gelatinous forms is the general phrase they use – they measure the volume. This chart shows that there are a lot more gelatinous forms the further west you go, and that 2006 was a big year for them. Last year, as we reported, there were virtually none.

This third chart – the 3D one – seems to show that there are fewer jellies now than there were five or six years ago, although I admit I have a hard time reading it.