2023 Güney Denizi Keşif Gezisi

JBL Expedition South Seas I and II

Deadly cube jellyfish or a harmless species?

One evening at the stern of the Aquatiki III, our group members were watching the sharks as usual, when one of us saw a jellyfish. We immediately found a jar and caught it. It was undoubtedly a cube jellyfish! The notorious Australian sea wasp (Chironex fleckeri), the cause of many fatal accidents in humans, belongs to this group.

On closer inspection, however, it turned out that it was only a slightly poisonous species of cube jellyfish. And we only ever saw the jellyfish at one anchorage. We quickly learnt why. The anchor buoy lay at a depth of 60 m on a reef slope that went several hundred metres further down. Deep-sea plankton, attracted by the light, came to the surface at night there. A biologist had reported in a specialist magazine that she was able to attract and photograph many unknown deep-sea organisms using a light source at a depth of 30 m above such a deep-sea slope.

After the "jellyfish evening", we often fished for plankton in the dark and examined it under the microscope. Unfortunately, the outer areas of the atolls were often very low in plankton and many of the organisms we caught were far too large for our microscope. But it was exciting every time!

geri

Fascinating fluorescence at night

Güney Denizi Keşif Gezisi

JBL Expedition South Seas I and II

Deadly cube jellyfish or a harmless species?

Information and consent to cookies & third-party content

Çerez ayarlarınızı seçin