Upside-Down Jellyfish Travel To Sarasota Bay

By CHRISTOPHER O'DONNELL Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: Aug 1, 2007

SARASOTA - The appearance of large numbers of a jellyfish that normally lives in the Florida Keys has baffled local marine scientists.

Upside-down jellyfish have been sighted along the west coast of Florida as far north as Cortez, near Bradenton. Local tour operators say the strange-looking creature, which anchors itself to the seabed rather than floating on the sea, is hurting their business.

Staff at Mote Marine Laboratory in Sarasota are looking into the jellyfish's spread. Marine biologists with Manatee County are asking boaters to report any sightings in Tampa Bay so they can track how far north the creatures have spread.

"Right now we're scratching our heads and wondering what's going on," said John Stevely, a marine biologist with the Manatee County Extension Office.

Captain Kim Ibasfalean, who takes customers on boat tours of Sarasota Bay from Cortez, said she started seeing the white and brown blobs just more than a year ago.

More kept turning up in the gentle shallow waters where she took sightseers to spots where shrimp, crabs and pygmy seahorses thrived.

Ibasfalean used to guarantee sightseers they would spot seahorses. Now those places have been overrun by the jellyfish, she said, and she has been forced to take her customers to other parts of the bay.

"Now they're not quite as thrilled," she said. "They won't come back quite as often."

The jellyfish's habit of attaching to the seabed can make spotting them difficult. Its sting is considered harmless, but handling the jellyfish can cause discomfort similar to a rash or a mild case of shingles.

Unable to withstand fast-flowing water, upside-down jellyfish thrive in shallow, sheltered waters such as inshore sandbars, canals and mangrove thickets. Made of mostly water, their delicate bodies cannot withstand strong waves or currents.

Scientists say it is not unheard of for upside-down jellyfish to show up in Sarasota Bay, but that such large numbers are unusual.