Jellyfish smack, def.: An aggregation, bloom or swarm of jellyfish

Welcome to Smack Talk! This newsletter comes to you from the NCEAS working group on jellyfish blooms. Read on to learn more. Entries will be added periodically so be sure to check back.

RECENT EVENTS:

"Implications of increased carbon supply and artificial habitat for the global expansion of jellyfish blooms", emerging issues workshop prior to ASLO meeting
11 - 12 February 2010, San Juan, Puerto Rico

On 20 Nov, 2010 the Global Jellyfish Group hosted the Jellyfish ROCK outreach event at the Santa Barbara Natural History Museum. For those not aware of these festivities, this was a free event to the public as part of a project sponsored by NCEAS in order to raise awareness in the community about jellyfish blooms. The event was a huge success with over 170 people attending. Included on You Tube are Jim Knowlton's introductory jellyfish video montage, set to music, three 5 min science presentations, an on-stage discussion with Larry Madin and a Q&A session.

Are jellyfish always bad? How many kinds of jellyfish are there? Can jellyfish be beautiful? These questions and many others were addressed at Jellyfish ROCK -- a fun and educational event hosted at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History on Saturday, November 20, 2010.

The Jellyfish Working Group, which is sponsored by the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS), hosted a successful and FUN outreach event to teach the general public about jellies and jellyfish blooms, the good and the bad aspects of jellies, and their importance to both coastal communities and to ocean ecosystems around the world. Called Jellyfish ROCK: Reaching Out to the Community & Kids, the event certainly generated enthusiasm from community members eager to learn about the diversity and beauty of jellies! More than 170 attendees of all ages converged at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for the interactive evening of videos, presentations from international jellyfish experts, live jellyfish, and children’s artwork from around the world. It’s safe to say that the event was a BIG success for all involved, and NCEAS is certainly proud to have sponsored both Jellyfish ROCK and the jelly working group that inspired it!

In conjunction with the Jellyfish ROCK outreach event, the Jellyfish Working Group partnered with the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach to host an International Jellyfish Art Contest. The call for art yielded 561 entries from students aged 2-12 years old who submitted collages, multimedia sculptures, drawings, paintings, and photographs. The talented students represented 14 countries: Argentina, Australia, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States!

-- Robin Vercruse, National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis

13 July - 16 July 2010 Mar del Plata, Argentina Hosted by Argentinean
Association of Marine Sciences and the National Institute for Fishery
Research and Development

Dear jelly readers,

At the National Center for Ecological Analysis & Synthesis (NCEAS), we are excited to host the "Global expansion of jellyfish blooms" Working Group, led by Rob Condon, Monty Graham, and Carlos Duarte.

Over the past 15 years, we have hosted a great deal of work on marine ecology, conservation and management - from basic questions about marine biology to identifying and addressing human impacts in marine systems.