
Have you ever been walking on the beach and came across silicone looking, jelly-like, crystal clear discs? Have you been swimming and encountered a peculiar brown blob floating by? Maybe youve emerged from the ocean with itchy, slightly stinging skin. All can be linked back to our local jellies. With an abundance of marine life on the Outer Banks, it comes as no surprise that jellyfish like to make a summertime pit stop to our beautiful beaches.
Well before the Outer Banks was a blip on a map, and well before dinosaurs, jellyfish were floating about our oceans. Research shows theyve been in existence for approximately 600 millions years or more! This makes them the oldest multi-organ animal in history. Pretty cool!
Having inhabited our seas for millions of years, jellyfish certainly hold a place of importance and integral role in our ecosystem. They are an essential food source for many marine mammals, including precious and endangered sea turtles. For this reason, it is important to remember to never release balloons into the sky, or use helium balloons in areas that are difficult keep secure. Balloons in flight make their way into our seas, where marine life, especially turtles, mistake the plastic as a jellyfish.
In addition to being valuable prey, jellyfish will also, in turn, protect other prey. Smaller fish use jellyfish tentacles as shelter from predators. Their tentacles also provide a defense mechanism for the prey, as their stingers will deliver stinging via neurotoxins to the predator.
As the Outer Banks waters warm and transform into cyan crystal clarity, the more tropical current, the Gulf Stream, dominates the cooler Labrador Current. With that warm, clear water comes some of the more tropical marine life from the south. This shift brings forth more jellyfish from the months (typically) May to September.
Last week (7/20) blooms of jellyfish gave us a visit. The crystal clear water made it easy to observe the jellies from afar, and they speckled our shorelines. This phenomenon raised a lot of questions from beachgoers, so Southern Shores Realty thought it would be beneficial to give the scoop on our local jellies!