The Jellies Experience is a sensory extravaganza of live exhibits and
interactive experiences that highlight the intriguing lives of these unlikely
animals - their graceful movements, beautiful symmetry, deceptive fragility and
surprising survival skills. It brings visitors face-to face with species new to
the Monterey Bay Aquarium, including elegant jellies, and past favorites like
blubber jellies, flower hat jellies, upside-down jellies, crystal jellies and
sea nettles.
Ocean Dance Gallery
Jellies dance through the water with grace and beauty, pulsing and drifting with
the currents. Each species moves to its own rhythm, depending on its size and
shape. Visitors explore the locomotion of jellies in this gallery, and can make
virtual giant jellies pulse and swim in an interactive display.
Japanese sea nettle
Chrysaora pacifica
This classic jelly sports some distinguishing characteristics - 16
brownish-orange stripes on its bell, eight stomach pouches and tentacles that
can stretch 10 feet or more. Those extra-long tentacles not only provide greater
protection from predators, but also increase its ability to hunt prey across
longer distances. It is native to the Pacific Ocean off Japan.
Radiant Nature Gallery
Jellies' simple, symmetrical bodies form entrancing designs and make them
exceptionally successful at sea. In this gallery visitors explore why radial
symmetry makes jellies effective. An interactive exhibit transforms live video
of visitors into symmetrical kaleidoscopic images.
Upside-down jelly
Cassiopea sp.
In its infancy this jelly flips upside down and settles on the bottom with
others of its kind; you rarely see this jelly alone. It has eight thick oral
arms (or mouth arms) instead of tentacles, but both function the same. It hosts
symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae, which give it a brownish tint and produce food
by photosynthesis. Its habitat is shallow lagoons and mangrove forests - both
threatened ecosystems - in the Indo-Pacific, the Caribbean and Hawaii.
Spotted jelly
Mastigias papua
This species is also known as a lagoon jelly because it lives in bays, harbors
and lagoons in the South Pacific. It travels upward during the day to absorb
sunlight, then back down again at night. It also hosts symbiotic algae, zooxanthellae, living within its tissue. Its high, rounded bell can grow to
about six inches in diameter and is covered with white spots. It also has four
frilly mouth arms and longer, club-shaped structures hanging beneath whose
purpose is unknown. Some of the larger spotted jellies actually have small
fishes living with them. The fishes use the inside of the jelly's bell as
protection from larger predators until they mature.
Delicate Danger Gallery
Jellies' delicate tentacles may appear fragile, but they cast a deadly net for
both food and foe. The slightest contact triggers a scary sting that's painful
to humans, too. Visitors to this gallery can read stinging stories in an
oversized comic book illustrated in the underground style popular in the late
1960s and early 1970s.
Atlantic sea nettle
Chrysaora quinquecirrha
Another classic jelly, this species is widely found in tepid waters along the
coasts of the western north Atlantic. Its bell can grow to about 10 inches in
diameter, but its many trailing tentacles - typically 40 in an adult - can reach
an amazing 150 inches long. Most of these jellies are semi-transparent, in
colors ranging from opaque white to light brown; some also have small white dots
and reddish-brown stripes.
Jelly Fantastic Gallery
Jellies flaunt a variety of shapes, sizes, colors and patterns that vary with
the lives they lead. In this gallery visitors visually sample a wide variety of
jellies through incredible images, models and several live exhibits. They can
then design their own jelly on one of five touch screen stations before sending
it to join other visitor creations in a virtual ocean.
Flower hat jelly
Olindias formosa
This gorgeous jelly is found only in waters off Japan at certain times of the
year. Brilliant, multi-colored tentacles drop down from its translucent,
pinstriped bell. The tips of these tentacles are fluorescent, acting as tiny
lures to entice prey. Other tentacles trailing under its bell quickly coil and
uncoil when capturing prey. This small jelly (up to about six inches in
diameter) is often seen resting on the seafloor.
Cross jelly
Mitrocoma cellularia
This jelly is commonly seen in Monterey Bay during spring and summer, sometimes
in large numbers. It lives in Pacific nearshore waters from Alaska south to
central California. It is transparent except for four white canals on its bell
that form an obvious X pattern. The lip of the bell, which can grow to just
under four inches wide, is rimmed with hundreds of fine white tentacles and is
bioluminescent. Studies suggest that cross jellies can smell food by sensing
chemicals in the water that indicate prey. This might be why cross jellies are
often seen in large groups around concentrations of prey.
Umbrella jelly
Eutonina indicans
This inconspicuous jelly - with a transparent bell and relatively small size
(1.5 inches maximum) - is easily overlooked. Four radial canals, each with
attached gonads, form a distinctive pattern on its bell, which is lined with
about 200 short, fine tentacles. Its mouth has four frilly lips that hang below
the bell on a conical stem, which swings to capture a meal. This jelly prefers
very cold water, and although relatively uncommon in Monterey Bay, it sometimes
occurs in dense swarms just off Washington's San Juan Islands and Canada's
Vancouver Island.
Deep-sea jelly
Ptychogena sp.
This transparent jelly is visible mostly by broad white gonads that stretch
across the top of its bell in an elongated cross pattern. Up to 500 very fine
but crimped tentacles sprout from small nodules that line the bell margin, and
trail downward like spider silk in search of prey. It inhabits waters between
the Bering Sea and southern California. Sharp-eyed
boaters occasionally see this deepwater jelly at the surface, although its
natural habitat is between 164 feet to over 3,800 feet below the surface.
Blubber jelly
Catostylus mosaicus
Also known as the blue jelly, this species is most commonly found in coastal
lagoons off eastern Australia, often in large swarms. Its color ranges from
white to a brilliant blue to a deep burgundy. Its bell, which can grow up to 18
inches in diameter, pulses in staccato-like bursts. Instead of tentacles, this
jelly has eight lacy oral arms that each contain several small mouths.
Minus its tentacles, and dried and salted, the blubber jelly is considered a
delicacy in Asian markets, and is the main ingredient in a rubber-band salad.
Jellies Explosion! Gallery
All jellies go through different stages in their unusual, and highly adaptable,
lifestyles. Jellies sometime appear in large groups, also known as a swarm or
smack, due to a mysterious stage in their lifecycle. These large groups may also
be prompted by effects of our changing climate. This gallery takes visitors
through a space-age swarm of living moon jellies created by transporter-like
exhibits and mirrored walls.
Moon jelly
Aurelia sp.
This jelly is named after its moon-like bell, which can grow up to 15 inches in
diameter and is usually a translucent milky white, although it may be tinted
pink or lavender. Instead of long, trailing tentacles, these jellies have a
short, fine fringe that helps funnel food - trapped by mucus on the bell - into
its mouth and four clearly visible stomach pouches. Moon jellies are common in
Monterey Bay and along the California coast, and in waters off the East Coast,
Europe, Japan and in the Gulf of Mexico.
Moon jelly polyps and ephyrae (baby jellies) went into orbit aboard the space shuttle Columbia in May 1991. They were part of a study on the effects of weightlessness on development of internal organs in juvenile jellies.
Light Show Gallery
Some jellies glow like nature's original black-light posters, while others
diffract white light into all the colors of the rainbow. Exhibits in this
gallery interpret three different types of lights in jellies - fluorescence,
bioluminescence and diffraction. Live exhibits include both jellies and corals.
Visitors to this gallery can walk through a model of a shimmering comb jelly,
and discover bioluminescent plankton and jellies in a virtual underwater
habitat.
Elegant jelly
Tima sp.
Appropriately named, this tiny, attractive jelly is a relative of the umbrella
jelly. Four long, frilled oral lobes arc nicely under its translucent bell above
long, trailing tentacles. It is found in relatively deep waters (200 to 300
feet) from the Arctic to Cape Hatteras, usually close to shore. Biologists know
little else about this jelly except that it feeds on plankton. In The Jellies
Experience dark blue lights above this exhibit makes this jelly glow fluorescent
green.
Candy cane coral
Caulastrea furcata
This colorful species has circular brownish-green polyps with neon-green centers
that glow under dark blue lights. Hard ridges of tissue inside the polyps,
called septa, give it a striped appearance resembling a peppermint. This
low-growing coral is native to tropical
reefs in the Indo-West Pacific, where it has been found in colonies up to 16
feet long. It is a hardy and relatively peaceful resident, sending out tentacles
at night to capture prey.
Plate coral
Fungia sp.
Fungia, or plate corals, consist of one large (up to a foot) polyp and usually a
single mouth. This Indo-Pacific species is one of the most colorful corals
around. Found in shades of purple, green and red, some with markings of blue,
pink, orange, yellow or brown, it is even more stunning when seen under blue
light. This solitary, free-standing coral can actually move - up to a foot a day
- by asymmetrically inflating and deflating its tissues and walk through this
peristaltic-like movement. It can be aggressive toward other corals and use its
mucous net as a weapon, which contains strong toxins that cause necrosis.
Button polyps
Zoanthus sp.
This attractive coral comes in a variety of colors including green, pink, brown
and orange, and glows brightly under special lights. Like a field of tiny
flowers, button polyps are often seen along shorelines, growing on stones and
coral rubble, as well as beneath sea grasses in shallow tide pools. While each
polyp is only about a half-inch in diameter, individual colonies can reach about
6 inches wide. Several colonies together may form a dense carpet covering areas
of several square feet. Some species of these innocently-named corals will sting
neighboring corals with a deadly toxin in its mucus.
Brain Coral
Trachyphyllia sp.
This distinctive coral looks like a brain, but may also be found in a flattened,
folded or figure-eight shape. Usually colored green with bits of red, under blue
lighting it glows green and orange. It has a hard skeleton covered with fleshy
tissues that expand and makes it look much larger than its actual size. It has
stinging tentacles and will use them on unwelcome neighbors if it has the
chance. This coral is common in the Indo-Pacific where it is typically found
attached to shells or other dead corals.
Warty Comb Jelly
Mnemiopsis leidyi
This little spaceship of a jelly is actually a ctenophore, or comb jelly. Eight
ciliated comb rows along its transparent, lobed body diffract white light and
make it look as if it were powered by rainbows. It may also produce bright-green
luminescent flashes when disturbed. It has several feeding tentacles and preys
on other jellies (even its own kind), and fish eggs and larvae. A small jelly,
it grows to about 5 inches long and about an inch in diameter. The warty comb
jelly, originally native to the western Atlantic Ocean, is hermaphroditic and
can reproduce all by itself.