Jellyfishes — Animals On The Verge Of Exploitation?
A Fishes Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM Lukas Jasiunas, Faunalytics.org
April 2021

Jellyfishes are increasingly being considered for human consumption. We need to put the brakes on a nascent industry that as of now has no standardized handling, processing recommendations, or guidelines. Furthermore, researchers argue that there are no specific food safety and quality parameters prepared at the time being.

Photo by Jeffrey Hamilton on Unsplash

In the seemingly endless efforts to expand the human circle of exploitation, jellyfishes seem to be on the radar of many interested parties — even the European Commission is supporting projects attempting to find ways to make use of these animals. A four-year-long research project, for instance, was granted over 6 million euros to investigate how we could use jellyfish in fighting marine microplastic pollution.

What’s more, it seems that the globalization of food markets and the new ‘novel foods’ regulatory system in the E.U. may very well function as a green light for stakeholders interested in serving jellyfishes up as food.

Jellyfishes are an incredibly diverse group of animals, ranging widely in terms of size, where adults can be anywhere between millimeters and meters in diameter, and where they live, with different species inhabiting the arctic, the tropics, the deep seas, the shallow coastal waters, and everywhere in between, even freshwater.

They also have widely differing appearances: their shapes, colors, and rigidity of their bells and tentacles come in many variations (just google and compare box and Halitrephes jellyfishes). Their hypnotizingly fluid movements, semi-transparent structures, and incredible regenerative capacities of medusae have mesmerized humankind for hundreds of years....

 

Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

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