Jellyfish populations are growing in the majority of the world’s coastal ecosystems, according to a new study from the University of British Columbia.
In the study, the researchers examined data on numerous species of jellyfish from forty-five of the worlds sixty-six “Large Marine Ecosystems.” There was an increase of jellyfish in sixty-two percent of the studied regions.
“There has been anecdotal evidence that jellyfish were on the rise in recent decades, but there hasn’t been a global study that gathered together all the existing data until now,” says Lucas Brotz, the lead author of the study.
“Our study confirms these observations scientifically after analysis of available information from 1950 to the present for more than 138 different jellyfish populations around the world.”
The study also makes the connection between the areas seeing the rise in population, also being the same areas that have been most affected by humans through pollution, overfishing, and warmer waters.
Source: University of British Columbia
Image Credits: Michael Dawson/University of California; Group of Blue Jellyfish and Jellyfish via Shutterstock