Aquarium of the Pacific

Aquarium Event

The Stinging Truth Behind Blooms of Sea Jellies

Monte Graham

Despite numerous recent examples of massive and unprecedented blooms of sea jellies in coastal waters around the world, these much-maligned animals remain enigmatic to marine science. Are these blooms simply natural variations? Or are they a sign of something sinister in our seas? We will take a close look at sea jellies, their populations, and the possible influence that human activity might have on sea jellies in coastal marine ecosystems.

Dr. Monty Graham is a Senior Marine Scientist at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab near Mobile, Alabama. He received his doctorate in biology from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1994. Dr. Graham has broad expertise in the field of biological oceanography and zooplankton ecology, but his research focuses on the ecology of gelatinous plankton blooms around the world. His published works range from edited volumes of scientific papers to children’s books on topics such as jellies behavior, feeding, and economic impacts of jelly blooms on fisheries. Most recently, his research has been on the role of climate in jellies-fish dynamics.

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Australian spotted jellyfish in the Gulf of Mexico in 2000.

Leidy's comb jelly (Mnemiopsis leidyi), a voracious ctenophore that blooms in large numbers along the east and Gulf coasts.