Friday, 23 January 2015

Jellyfish 'can sense ocean currents'

23 January 2015 Last updated at 08:39

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC News

The swimming jellyfish were tagged with data loggers fitted to their bodies with cable ties

Jellyfish can sense the ocean current and actively swim against it, according to a study that involved tagging and tracking the creatures.

The research, by an international team, could help scientists work out how jellyfish form "blooms".

These blooms may comprise between hundreds and millions of jellyfish, and can persist in a given area for months.

It remains unclear just how the jellyfish sense changes in water, the paper in Current Biology journal says.

The scientists, including researchers from Swansea University and Deakin University in Warnambool, Australia, tagged 18 large barrel jellyfish (Rhizostoma octopus) in the Bay of Biscay, off the coast of France.

The team caught the jellyfish and fitted them with loggers that measured acceleration and body orientation.

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