In this study, we estimated the distribution density of giant jellyfish in coastal waters of Korea in 2023 and compared the occurrence of giant jellyfish over four years. In May, the giant jellyfish were mainly distributed in the waters of the Yangtze River outflow, and in July, they were highly distributed in the west of Jeju Island and near the south coast of Korea. In addition, when comparing the distribution densities of giant jellyfish in Korea over four years, both acoustic and sighting surveys showed that the highest density of jellyfish occurred in 2021.

Freshwater jellyfish, a type of jellyfish exclusively found in freshwater, has a limited number of species but is found globally. However, their ecology and causes of occurrence are largely unknown. Therefore, understanding the distribution of polyps, which produce the larvae of freshwater jellyfish, can provide important data for comprehending their ecology. This study aims to explore the COI gene of freshwater jellyfish using environmental DNA from the microbial film in the Miho River system. Among the 12 survey points in the Miho River watershed, genetic material of freshwater jellyfish was detected in 8 points, mainly located upstream near reservoirs. These genetic materials were identified as genes of the well-known freshwater jellyfish species, Craspedacusta sowerbii. Notably, the C. sowerbii genes found in the Miho River watershed survey points were closely related to a species previously discovered in Italy. Consequently, utilizing environmental DNA to explore the genetic traces of freshwater jellyfish enables rapid screening of areas with a high likelihood of freshwater jellyfish occurrence. This approach is deemed to provide crucial information for understanding the distribution and ecology of freshwater jellyfish in Korea.

Damages by jellyfish are occurring frequently around the world. Among them, accidents caused by jellyfish stings are serious enough to cause death. So we designed a jellyfish blocking net and analyzed its stability to prevent sting caused by jellyfish entering the beach. To this end, the dynamic behavior of the jellyfish blocking net according to the current speed (0.25-1.0 m/s) and the net type (50, 100 and 150 mm) on the upper part of the blocking net was modeled using the mass spring model. As a result of simulations for the model, the horizontal tension (horizontal component of the mooring tension) of the mooring line increased with the decrease in the mesh size on the upper part of the blocking net at all current speeds, but exceeded the holding force at high tides faster than 0.5 m/s and exceeded the holding force at all current speeds at low tide. Therefore, the jellyfish blocking nets showed poor stability overall. The depth of the float line had a little difference according to the upper mesh size and increased lineary proportional to the current speed. However, the float line sank too much to block the incoming jellyfish. These analysis results helped us find ways to improve the stability of the jellyfish blocking net, such as adjusting the length of the mooring line and improving the holding power. Therefore, it is expected that this technology will be applied us various underwater structures to discover the weaknesses of the structures and contribute to increasing the stability in the future.

In this study, the vertical distribution of giant jellyfish analyzed echo counting method and such survey methods as sighting and trawl were used to compare its density estimates. In May and July 2021, surveys were conducted in the East China Sea and the coastal waters of Korea. As a result, Nemopilema nomurai were evenly distributed in all water layers in East China Sea in May and July. When considered the correlation by each survey methods, it is possible to identify jellyfish in the surface area by sighting method and using sampling net; however, it has a low correlation with acoustic estimates due to marine environmental factor such as weather condition, wind and atmospheric pressure. Therefore, the result can be utilized by basic data when estimating jellyfish’s distribution patterns and density estimates from each survey methods hereafter.

Jellyfish envenomation is a world-wide health problem, which often seriously affect the fishery and bathing activities. To date, few individual jellyfish venoms proteins have been thoroughly characterized yet. In this work, four species of scyphozoan jellyfish (Nemopilema nomurai, Cyanea nozakii, Aurellia aurita and Rhopilema esculentum) are compared according to their, cytotoxicity, hemolytic potency, brine shrimp toxicity and protein components. Jellyfish venoms showed higher cytotoxicity in H9C2 heart myoblast than in C2C12 skeletal myoblast, with the exception of C. nozakii venom. This result suggests that the selective cytotoxic effects may be possibly related to their in vivo effects of cardiac tissue dysfunction. On the other hand, hemolytic activity could be also observed from all tested jellyfish venoms. N. nomurai jellyfish venom displaying the greatest hemolytic activity. As an alternative method of evaluating the toxicities of jellyfish venoms, the toxicity on brine shrimp was examined with the four jellyfish venoms. From this, the venom of N. nomurai showed higher toxicity against brine shrimp than the other jellyfish venoms, which is consistent with the results of cytotoxicity assay as well as hemolysis assay of the present study. SDS-PAGE analysis of four jellyfish venoms showed the similar pattern with molecular weight of around 40 kDa, and appeared to be the major protein components. These results provided that N. nomurai jellyfish venom was potently toxic than other scyphozoan jellyfish venoms and may explain to some extent the deleterious effects associated with human envenoming.

이 연구는 해파리 비료 시비처리 수준에 따른 상수리나무 유묘의 광합성 반응과 엽록소 함량 변화를 알아보기 위해 수행되었으며, 시비처리는 5가지로 조절하였다(무시비처리구, 1.6 g/kg, 2.7 g/kg, 5.5 g/kg과 11.1 g/kg). 해파리 비료 시비처리시 토양수분함량과 잎의 수분포텐셜은 비교적 높게 나타났으며, 해파리 비료의 콜로이드 특성이 토양의 수분보유력을 높이는 것을 알 수 있다. 1.6 g/kg 처리구에서 최대 광합성속도, 기공증산속도, 기공전도도, Fv/Fm 및 토양-엽 수리전도도 등 전반적인 광합성 활성이 증가 하였으며(p<0.05), 엽록소와 카로테노이드 함량 및 Fv/Fo 역시 높게 나타났다(p<0.05). 이와 유사하게 2.7 g/kg 처리구 역시 광합성 활성과 엽록소 함량이 높은 것으로(p<0.05) 나타났으나 무처리구는 이와 반대되는 경향을 보였다. 특히 11.1 g/kg 처리구 경우 토양수분함량은 가장 높았으나 잎의 수분포텐셜은 상대적으로 낮게 나타났는데, 이는 과도한 시비에 따른 생리적인 장애로 생각된다. 결론적으로 1.6 g/kg과 2.7 g/kg 해파리 비료 시비처리시 상수리나무 유묘의 토양수분 보유력과 광합성 활성이 증가됨을 알 수 있다.

마산만에서 수치모델을 이용하여 해파리의 시·공간적 분포를 파악하였다. 먼저 3차원 해수유동모델(POM)을 이용하여 조석, 바람, 수온·염분의 효과를 고려한 잔차류를 계산하였다. 마산만의 마산항, 중공업단지, 가포신항에서 발생한 해파리의 거동을 파악하기 위하여 잔차류에 의한 입자추적자 모델을 이용하였다. 해파리의 분포는 마창대교 북쪽해역에서 최대인 2,533 개체수가 나타났다. 이와 같은 현상은 잔차류의 다방향으로 혼재하는 흐름과 지형적인 영향으로 판단된다. 해파리의 이동에 영향을 미치는 잔차류가 우세한 해역에서 외력조건에 따른 해파리의 집적도를 알아보기 위해서 조석잔차류, 취송류, 밀도류의 유형별 수치실험을 하였다. 특히 마산만의 마창대교와 마산만 입구인 모도해역에서는 취송류(바람에 의한 효과)가 해파리의 집적에 탁월한 것을 확인하였다.

Target strength (TS) information is an important parameter that estimates the detection, distribution, and abundance of Aurelia aurita. In order to investigate the biological TS of jellyfish, some factors such as size (bell diameter), tilt angle, pulsation, and symbion should be known. In the ex situ TS measurements, the tilt angles and pulsation from synchronized swimming behavior of four live A. aurita (bell diameters in the air: 54.2 ~ 94.2 mm) were measured with the acoustic data at 70 kHz. The reduced target strength (RTS) of A. aurita was found to change ranged from 13.4 ~ 16.5 dB according to the incidence angles from –30° to 24°. When the change rate of bell diameter in the water was 0.2, the TS value showed a 7.2 dB change. These results could be utilized as an important data to understand the acoustic characteristic scattering of A. aurita.