ACS Monterey Bay Program for February 2009

Jelly Blooms and Climate Change; and, Deep Sea Jellies

Jellies are some of the more beautiful and interesting denizens of the sea. Even though they have no brain, no heart, no circulatory system no lungs or no gills, Jellies captivate us with their graceful movement and often beautiful color. They are important links in food webs transferring nutrition from zooplankton up the food system to the charismatic mega fauna such as dolphin, leather back turtles and the largest boney fish in the ocean, the mola mola or ocean sunfish.

The best excursions into the world of Jellies are those which are lead by a special guide called a Jelly Wrangler. We, in the Monterey Bay area, are fortunate to have a world famous Jelly Wrangler in the person of Chad Widmer, Senior Aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Chad has managed the display, the culturing and the acquisition of jellies at the Aquarium for eight years. Additionally, Chad spent five years working with the penguins in Splash Zone. Chad's research into the world of deep sea jellies has been going on for about three years. He recently completed a feasibility study regarding a display featuring Humboldt squid at the Aquarium.

As a Jelly Wranglers, Chad and his team are responsible for keeping 15 exhibits in the Drifters Gallery full of jellies. This is a challenge for many reasons including the fact that wild jellies are not always available for collection. So, to keep things more under control, Chad runs a culturing lab for the jellies. He raises his own.

Chad's success at raising jellies culminated in a book: How to Keep Jellyfish in Aquariums: an Introductory Guide for Maintaining Healthy Jellies. So if you want to include an aquarium of jellies in your living room décor you should start with a copy of this book to keep your tank healthy and looking good. For more information check out Chad's web site, jellykeeping101.com.

As for Chad's research, some preliminary findings about jellies in the Southern Monterey Bay were published in 2005 in Ecosystem Observations for the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Chad will also update us on his more recent work with deep sea jellies. Please join us for what promises to be a fun and informative evening.

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