April 15, 2019 — “Jellyfish have superpowers,” assured Heidi Mendoza-Islas, a graduate student at the University of Alaska Fairbanks College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences.
The voracious carnivores will eat almost anything that fits into their mouths. When conditions are good, they grow fast and multiply. When conditions aren’t ideal, baby jellies can transform into cysts and wait it out.
So it is no surprise that jellyfish have been successful predators in the Gulf of Alaska, Mendoza-Islas said. But few studies have focused on the role jellyfish play in the Gulf’s ecosystem or how jellyfish affect commercially important finfish, such as pollock. Mendoza-Islas wants to change that.