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The Mystery Unveiled Behind Millions of Stranded Blue Jellyfish Bodies

Scientists have unraveled the mystery of why millions of marine creatures known as Velella wash ashore.

Source: https://www.indyturk.com/node/335426/bi%CC%87li%CC%87m/k%C4%B1y%C4%B1ya-vuran-milyonlarca-mavi-denizanas%C4%B1-cesedinin-s%C4%B1rr%C4%B1-%C3%A7%C3%B6z%C3%BCld%C3%BC

Named Velella velella in Latin, these jellyfish spend their days drifting in open seas, propelled by the influence of winds. Dubbed “sailor jellyfish,” they capture tiny fish and plankton as they drift along.

With a gelatinous top side floating on the water’s surface and tentacles beneath, these creatures, closely related to familiar jellyfish, are famous for appearing on beaches. Thousands of Velella are swept ashore by winds each year, adorning beaches around the world.

Professor Julia Parrish from the University of Washington explains that these creatures dry up and cover beaches like a carpet when they perish.

While it’s common for sailor jellyfish to be carried ashore by changing seasonal winds, in some instances, the number of bodies stranded on beaches reaches surprising levels, baffling scientists. These events see not thousands, but millions of jellyfish carcasses.

To understand this extraordinary phenomenon, Parrish and colleagues examined observations of Velella made along the western U.S. coast over 20 years. The findings, obtained from the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team (COASST), covered hundreds of beaches along the North Pacific Rim.

The most massive die-offs were found to occur between 2015 and 2019, during the spring months. Researchers identified a stretch of approximately a thousand kilometers covered by dead jellyfish within this timeframe.

These mass mortalities coincided with a “blob,” a term referring to a large heatwave in the ocean occurring simultaneously. Surface waters along the Pacific coasts began warming to unprecedented levels starting in 2013. The intense warming continued into 2016, affecting every level of the food chain and resulting in mass die-offs of seabirds, toothless whales, sea lions, and other marine life.

According to researchers, this heatwave played a role in the mass beaching of drifting jellyfish, propelled by winds, during the spring months. Furthermore, warmer ocean waters actually benefit these marine creatures. The “blob” event extended the spawning seasons of some fish species, such as North Pacific herring, allowing jellyfish to find more food.

The research team suggests that the increasing jellyfish population due to favorable conditions contributes to the proliferation of stranded masses along the Pacific coastlines. As a result, while climate change may favor Velella, it also increases the number of bodies washing ashore.

Parrish, speaking to Livescience, notes, “Changing climate creates new winners and losers in every ecosystem.”

What’s frightening is that we are documenting this change.

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