On an overcast morning, Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s jelly team readies their boat and heads out into Puget Sound to a cove between Vashon and Maury Islands. The goal: collecting moon jellies.
Moon jellies are plentiful in the waters around the Pacific Northwest and the jelly team will try to collect up to 100 moon jellies on this jellyfishing trip. (All collection is done under a permit from the Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife, which monitors populations carefully.) Moon jellies are natural food for other jellyfish, like lion’s mane and egg yolk jellies, which are both in the Jelly Gallery in the Pacific Seas Aquarium.
“You can really tell a difference when those jellyfish have eaten what they would naturally eat out in the wild,” Aquarist Allissa says.
Aquarist Dr. Chad will also collect male and female reproductive material from the jellyfish they catch to increase the genetic diversity of the moon jellies he grows through IVF. Some will go in the jelly globe, as well.
Sit back, start scrolling and take a virtual jellyfishing photo trip with us on Puget Sound.
Aquarists Mikiko and Julie load nets and coolers for housing the jellyfish onto the boat.
This is one of four jellyfishing trips planned for this year and aquarists Julie and Allissa document the “out-of-office” work day.
Dr. Chad captains the boat.
The map of where the team is headed.
Julie finds one moon jelly. They decide to travel to where the water is a little more flat.
Allissa spots a couple of moon jellies. The aquarists point their nets at the jellies so Dr. Chad can position the boat for them to scoop them up.
Allissa catches a moon jelly and places it in one of the coolers.
A close-up of a moon jelly in a net.
The team transitions to their extra buckets after finding more jellies. Mikiko adds water from the Sound.
Dr. Chad tries his hand at scooping up a moon jelly.
Julie spots another moon jelly as Allissa and Mikiko catch two others.
The team secures their bins as they head back to the marina.
The team spots a “slick,” where vertical rotating cells of water collect floating objects like kelp or jellies. Since fish love to associate with structures it’s also a good fishing spot. They decide to stop to collect some bull kelp to display in the Northwest Waters main exhibit and see if they can see any other jellies or fish.
The views on the way back to the marina included a harbor seal, bald eagle and the smallest bit of rain over the sound.
The views on the way back to the marina included a harbor seal, bald eagle and the smallest bit of rain over the sound.
The views on the way back to the marina included a harbor seal, bald eagle and the smallest bit of rain over the sound.
Julie and Dr. Chad work on docking the boat together.
Aquarist Heidi helps Mikiko and team unload the boat and hose off the sea water.
Julie and Dr. Chad assess today’s jellyfish catch and unload them into an off-exhibit area.
Julie and Dr. Chad assess today’s jellyfish catch and unload them into an off-exhibit area.
Moon jellies swim in their new home.
Dr. Chad and the other aquarists “burp” the jellies, releasing any air bubbles that would dry them up
Humans can’t feel the sting of moon jellies.
The team takes a final look at all the jellyfish they collected, totaling around 90. A successful jellyfishing trip!
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