JELLYFISH: a possible solution.

A research of an Italian university showed that the excess of jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea causes each year high costs for the health service, as well as for some industries and for fishing.

So...this university made a proposal: why don't we eat them?
In China and other countries they're already doing it and jellyfish are considered a prized food. Actually, they have a low caloric content and they are rich of proteins, Omega 3 and Omega 6.

Today the turnover linked to the consumption of jellyfish is higher than 25 million euros. But there's a problem...the EU recognizes as edible only the Asian jellyfish and not the European ones.

The aim of this Italian university is to study in deep the nutritional properties of the European jellyfish, and also to investigate their possible use in the zootechnique and in the pharmaceutical research.

JELLYFISH: a worrying invasion.

For some years now the jellyfish are causing serious damage to fishing and to industrial activities. This is happening not only in the Mediterranean Sea, but also in the Irish Sea and in the Atlantic Ocean, because of the global warming. 

In 2013 they have killed 20.000 salmons in the plants of Marine Havest, off the coast of the Irish island of Clare. Other similar episodes have occurred along the coasts of Tunisia, Spain, Normandy, Catalonia, Norway and Chile. 

This problem is not so known at the moment, but it can't be underestimated. Jellyfish cause trouble to the fish farms, but also in the open seas, where they can choke the boat motors and pile up in the nets, reducing the fish and making it hard to select it. 

Whose is the blame for all of this? 

Of course global warming is playing a fundamental role: in the Mediterranean Sea there are species that once couldn't be found there, like puffers and barracudas and the man exploiting too much the marine ecosystems reduces the competition for food, so jellyfish thrive more than the fish species. 

Furthermore, they resist well to the effects of pollution and to the acidification of the oceans. 

They threaten to wipe out marine biodiversity.