Winter jellyfish amaze scientists

This winter, there have been unusually many sightings of jellyfish. “A little mystery,” writes the Institute of Marine Research.

“The jellyfish eat zooplankton, and most often dissolve in the late autumn precisely because there are no good nutritional conditions for them anymore,” says marine scientist and expert on zooplankton Tone Falkenhaug at the Institute of Marine Research.

Therefore, what happened this winter is unusual. The institute has received numerous reports of sightings of these animals along the southwest coast.

Falkenhaug has so far, no clear explanation of what has happened.

“Jellyfish are cold water species and thrive in colder water. So it has not been proven that there are more jellyfish now because the sea is warmer,” she says.

With climate change and rising temperatures in the ocean, scientists expect the jellyfish that thrive in cold water to migrate further north than they have in the past.

“There is some speculation that some jellyfish have survived in deeper water or that they come from more southern areas,” says Falkenhaug.

Jellyfish are at the mercy of the weather and wind when it comes to where they end up.

“We know that coastal currents transport jellyfish from both the North Sea and along Denmark and Sweden,” says the researcher.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today