We asked Dr Gershwin 5 jellyfish questions and she wowed us with her passionate answers. Below are shortened versions of her responses … but we recommend you read her full responses here and check out her Jellyfish App. You will love her passion too!
1.Why jellyfish? Is there one fascinating fact about them that drew you to study them so passionately?
Oh heavens, we definitely don't have enough space for me to fully explain all the things I love about jellies! They are simply amazing. They've got that whole beautiful-but-dangerous thing, and they are so weird and other-worldly that honestly, it just makes my heart pound with excitement. I also love that as a scientist I study something with such enormous potential for so many meaningful discoveries: in a recent week I found something in the order of four new records for Australia and at least one species new to science. I love that my work feels like Christmas morning most days☺
2. What jellyfish will we find around Tasmania?
We have about 50-100 jellyfish species around Tasmania, depending on how tightly or loosely you define jellyfish. These range from the brilliant blue Blue Bottle, to three species of Lion's Manes, all new to science, to dozens of species of fairly harmless teeny tiny species just a few millimetres tall, that come in the most astonishingly strange shapes. We have so many more other species, and so many more yet to discover. I still find that about 8 out of 10 times I go jellyfishing I find a species new to science – there aren't many things you can do in the world with that much excitement (at least not legally!).
3. Are any a threat to us?
We've got a few here that sting, but none that are life threatening. The Blue Bottle of course is fairly stingy. And the Long Stingy Stringy Thingy, obviously. And the Lion's Mane and Sea Nettle will get your attention but probably not drive you out of the water. Most of the species of jellies we have here in Tasmania are just cool to watch and wonder about.
4.What's the biggest one a) in the world and b) in our waters?
The biggest diameter jellyfish known in the world is one of the Lion's Mane species Cyanea arctica from the North Atlantic, which reaches about 3m across the bell. The longest jellyfish is a totally weird colonial beast from the deep seas of the world, which reaches about 50m – longer than a blue whale! It has hundreds of long tentacles that it deploys into essentially a wall of sting, or like a very long array of fly paper, catching any hapless creature that bumbles into it.
Here in Tassie, our biggest are almost miniature in comparison, with our biggest Lion's Mane species reaching about 1.5m in diameter.
5. One of our tours saw a large school off Constitution Dock – are we seeing an increase in jellyfish in our waters or is this normal?
This is a good question! The local Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia) can bloom fairly impressively, particularly at Constitution Dock. I've seen it there in numbers that really got my attention. Intriguingly, although it now occurs in large numbers most summers right across southern Tassie, a synopsis of local jellies in the 1980s didn't include it, suggesting that it wasn't so abundant then.
As for jellies in general, we know from overseas studies that many species are becoming more abundant in certain areas – bays and harbours for example – but we lack systematic sampling here to be able to really say with confidence.
For Dr Gershwin's more detailed answers go to our website.
