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| GoJelly project is predicted to be effective in preventing unstable ecosystem made by increasing population of jellyfish |
According to the recent data about marine ecosystem, it is distinguishing data that the population of certain marine creatures has decreased significantly, while the others creatures are endangered. This unstable ecosystem must have created unbalanced system implying to the bigger effects. And one of those creatures is the jellyfish.
Since the global climate has been affecting the world’s society, many marine scientists had predicted that marine ecosystem is affected the biggest among others ecosystem. One of the dramatic decreasing of population could be seen in the inclining numbers of fish because of the increasing rate of ocean temperature which directly affects their habitats. Greenhouse gasses which is responsible to the presence of greenhouse effect provides pollutants impacting the oceans to experience acidification in particular the coral reef. Subsequently, numbers of fish living in the coral decreased significantly while at the same time the population of jellyfish is increasing.
Jellyfish is one of aquatic creatures with soft-bodied made by gelatines. Jellyfish has tentacles which are utilized for either capturing their prey or defending themselves from danger. This marine creatures have been swimming for hundreds of million years suggesting as one of the most ancient sea creatures in the world.
It has been reported that the growing numbers of jellyfish have expanded lots of area particularly in European waters. One of those cases is the destroying of fish farms in European coasts impacting to the economic and food preservation. On the other hand, the expansion also affected the cooling system of power stations. Technically speaking, the presence of jellyfish in high number provides many disadvantages including their toxicity.
Therefore, to prevent the unstable system, team scientists coordinated by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Germany, tend to solve this problem by not risking the environment. How do they solve the problem? They named the project as “The Gojelly Project”
Jellyfish and the minerals contain within it
Although certain species have high toxicity, it turns out that jellyfish is one of the marine creatures which have potential biochemically. For example, American comb jelly has billion tons of biomass indicating that this could be utilized for organic-based products. They are fertilizer and food for agriculture and aquaculture feed respectively. This solution also provides subsequent impact to the soil ecosystem as currently many people still use chemical substances which are considered biohazard.
The interesting point lies on the composition of jellyfish itself. Biologically speaking, jellyfish contains chemical substance called collagen which is mainly utilized in the cosmetics industry. This could become a new trend in field of fashion.
Studies also have reported that the mucus from jellyfish can bind microplastic which can be used for biofilters for certain use. This could help people in sewage treatment while it can reduce the industrial impact in fabricating microplastic made by industries.
To be concluded, the solution of utilizing the biomass aspect of jellyfish is promising solution in preventing unstable ecosystem impact to the environment. However, our limited knowledge related to the biological factors of jellyfish is the main challenge. Furthermore, the team firstly is going to study them thoroughly.