Mnemiopsis leidyi

ON EXHIBIT:  Jellies: Living Art exhibit at Ocean Journey

FUN FACTS
Sea walnuts are not true jellyfish, instead they belong to a group of animals know as comb jellies.  Comb jellies have no stinging cells, but instead use sticky mucous to catch their prey.  These animals get their name from rows of paddle-like hairs called combs.  Like tiny prisms, the combs refract visible light into a pulsing rainbow.

CONSERVATION
In the 1980’s comb jellies were accidentally introduced into the Black Sea – most likely via ship ballast water.   Without a natural predator, the comb jellies quickly took over their new home and devastated local anchovy fisheries.  Despite the introduction of a natural predator, Beroe jellyfish, that has helped control the invading comb jellies, the Black Sea fisheries have yet to recover.