Poisonous jellyfish thriving in Dardanelles: Expert

ÇANAKKALE

In the Dardanelles, located in the western province of Çanakkale, poisonous compass jellyfish whose numbers have been increasing since last year, have negatively affected the fish population, an expert has warned.

Compass jellyfish (chrysaora hysoscella), whose natural habitats are the Mediterranean and the Aegean, are now seen more frequently in the Dardanelles.

Prof. Dr. Muhammet Türkoğlu, an academic in the field of marine sciences, warned the public to be careful about these jellyfish, which can be red, brown or yellow in color and have tentacles up to 1.5 meters long.

Stating that compass jellyfish have four tentacles, Türkoğlu said that there are nematocyte cells on their tentacles which contain toxic substances. When contacted, people get symptoms such as redness, rash, eczema and burning on the body.

Türkoğlu said that one of the reasons for this species to appear in the Marmara Sea is the excessive pollution and the surface waters warming up.

Emphasizing that these jellyfish are dangerous for fish population as well as human health, Türkoğlu stated that this type of jellyfish is carnivorous and feed mostly on fish eggs and larvae, as their numbers increase, they also cause the fish population in that region to weaken.

Together with the pollution of the water, they have an ecological effect that can cause a decrease in the population density of some species specific to Marmara, Türkoğlu noted.

“We have no chance to stop the warming of the waters in the short term, but we can stop pollution. If we can stop the pollution around big cities like Istanbul, we can solve this problem in the Marmara Sea,” he added.