jellies adieu

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Hardly bigger than the tips of my fingers, the jelly swims in a cup of water.

One last (? well perhaps) look at the freshwater jellyfish of 2015. With the temperatures predicted to drop to more fall like conditions this weekend, I expect the adult medusae will all but disappear. Studies have shown that they prefer water temps from 77 to 82 degrees. 

With this in mind, I held a peanut butter and jellyfish social last Sunday at the nature center. After a brief talk about the life history of Craspedacusta sowerbii—with accompanying peanut butter and jelly sandwiches—we walked the short distance to the quarry lake in the heat of the late summer day.

The people on rented paddleboards, kayaks and canoes were reporting "oodles" of jellies on the north end of the lake. We quickly filled our jar for all to see them up close, one last time.

They float, they undulate, they flutter like eyelashes. They are ever changing amorphic shapes like clouds or raindrops, highly mutable. Yet, unlike the other two, these have life; these have genders. And this is the part of their short lives when the males and females find each other.   

And since their lives run in a two year cycle, it will be 2017 before their offspring may return in such numbers.

Props to WBIR's Jim Matheny who first discovered this bloom of jellies and reported them to me three weeks ago. His report and jelly video deserves a second look: Matheny.

Jellies, adieu. 

With a name like Craspedacusta sowerbii it has to be good.

Jellyfishers

Noel and Brian from California, in town to visit their grandkids 
and share the fun of all things jelly

On the lookout

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freshwater jellies

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Penny-sized freshwater jellyfish.  Photo by Chuck Cooper.

WBIR's Jim Matheny is a good TV multimedia journalist. And like any good reporter, he's always searching for his next story.

On a recent day off, he rented a paddleboard from River Sports to explore Mead's Quarry Lake at Ijams. Spotting something odd and small swimming in the water, Jim had one of those "What the heck?" moments. 

The next day, a phone call or two, led him to me. And luckily, I knew "What the heck" he was talking about: Craspedacusta sowerbii, or freshwater jellyfish.

Transparent and the size of a penny, the little beasties are hard to notice and hard not to notice at the same time. They're 99 percent water and one percent simple cellular construct that somehow holds the creature together. And, yet...Pow!, the miracle of life! 

But finding them in a 25-acre lake is serendipitous, like finding a Leprechaun's pot of gold or the car keys I once lost for my 1971 Toyota Celica.  

Jim's lively jellyfish report aired this afternoon on WBIR. It's perhaps one of the smallest living things the venerable NBC affiliate has ever showcased. Watching the account, it looks like I'm the only one paddling around the lake chasing the Lilliputian invertebrates. Did I say "ephemeral"? I should. Yet, always nearby, off camera, was a red canoe that contained the story's reporter, producer, writer, editor and videographer, an entire TV crew, all housed in Jim.

He had also figured out how to get his GoPro video camera to glide smoothly underwater behind his canoe using a combination of an empty water bottle for buoyancy and wrenches for ballast. His cobbled together creation should be forever known as the "Matheny Rig." His jellyfish footage is matchless. 

To see his report, click: WBIR jellyfish

Thanks, Jim.

Jim holding his recently created "Matheny Rig" for underwater video

WBIR TV News crew

Searching for jellies.

Photos by Jim Matheny (Who else was out there?)

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fresh jellies

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On an Ijams canoe trip on Mead's Quarry Lake that I led last Saturday we found an unexpected curiosity: ghostly freshwater jellyfish! (Craspedacusta sowerbyi)


First reported in the South Knoxville quarry lake in 1997, I didn't expect to find them so late in the season. I associate the coin-sized medusas (ma-DOO-zuhs, say it slow, don't you just love the sound of that word?) with the hot days of late summer. 

For the complete story go to: jellies.


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