Jellyfish Should Have Been on Jeopardy
BY STEVE BIASETTI, GROUP FOR THE EAST END DIRECTOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Leidy’s comb jellyfish. National Aquarium photo.
I am a big fan of the television show, Jeopardy. In fact, if the family TV is not turned to Channel 7 at 7 o’clock on a weekday, this digression may warrant an investigation. I respectfully suggest that the show’s writers missed a golden opportunity the other day. The category was “Silent C.” While “muscle” and “indict” and “yacht” are perfectly fine answers, not one of the show’s five questions had anything to do with jellyfish.
Allow me to explain. As a certified “nature nerd,” when I read the topic of the category I immediately thought of two groups of jellyfish. One group, the comb jelly, is known taxonomically as a “ctenophore.” Pronounced “ten-o-for,” I have way too much fun during Group for the East End taxonomy lessons challenging fifth-grade students to guess the silent letter at the beginning of the word.
During the warmer months of the year East End waters are teeming with Leidy’s comb jellies (Mnemiopsis leidyi), the local species of ctenophore. In the midday, if seen in proper light, these clear blobs might show a faint flower pattern. Of more relevance to swimmers, they never show a tangle of tentacles and hence are unable to sting us. Interestingly, Leidy’s comb jellies are bioluminescent, and their light show can be seen brilliantly in low light or after dark.
Returning to my Jeopardy category reference, the second group is the stinging jellyfish. The stinging jelly shares its taxonomic grouping with corals and sea anemones. Collectively, they are known as “cnidarians” (pronounced “ni-dare-e-ans”). Lion’s mane jellies (Cyanea capillata) are the common cnidarian in local waters during the warmer months, often terrorizing us with their stinging tentacles in late July and August. In the past two weeks I’ve already spotted a few small versions of these orange-brown to reddish jellies in Peconic Bay.
Under the category of “Silent C,” a question or two on taxonomic groups of jellyfish would certainly have stumped many game show brainiacs, perhaps even challenging Jeopardy royalty like James Holzhauer or Ken Jennings. Thus I repeat: a golden opportunity was missed!