Are
jellyfish populations increasing around the world? Like the weather, jellyfish
blooms are something that many people talk about, but few people do anything
about. One exception would be MBARI's Steve Haddock, a marine biologist who has
been studying jellies for more than two decades. Haddock recently rolled out a
new and improved web site (jellywatch.org) that allows citizen scientists
around the world to report jellyfish blooms.
Haddock
first set up the JellyWatch site about 10 years ago, in an attempt to use citizen science to
find out about jelly blooms worldwide. Designed by Haddock and two summer
interns, the original JellyWatch site was a joint effort by MBARI and the
Monterey Bay Aquarium.
As
Haddock explained at the time, "People have been talking about jelly
blooms increasing around the world, but we don't really have a lot of data on
this. So it's hard to know how localized these events are. That's why we
created this website. The idea is that everyday people can get involved in a
real ocean research project. Their eyes are important instruments in this study."
The
jellywatch.org site was quite popular; by March 2010 it already had
observations from every continent except Antarctica. For years it allowed
people from all over the world to report and share jellyfish sightings, as well
as photos and observations of other transient ocean events.
Unfortunately,
due to difficulties with funding and website hosting, the JellyWatch site went
dormant in 2018. But just this month, Haddock rolled out a new and improved
JellyWatch site, funded in part through a grant from the National Science
Foundation.
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