Global Fish Crisis | Still Waters, National Geographic Magazine: Zhapo China’s Jellyfish Fishery

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Zhapo, China has a huge Jellyfish fishery—the entire town slings laundry tubs full of the gelatinous, mucousy jellyfish. They fish on cloudy days when they can see the masses of jelly from their boats.  A cultural difference; the Chinese like to eat jellyfish because of the texture. To me, a jellyfish fishery is “fishing down the food chain.”  With fewer and fewer predators (sharks are down 80 percent) this kind of creature, lower on the food chain, tends to thrive and will be used more and more as a food source as the other species decline.

For 1,700 years, jellyfish have been netted along China’s coast. Sold dried, about 170,000 tons a year are caught in Southeast Asia. Ecologists worry that in some waters as larger fish disappear and smaller fish are targeted, only low-end species like jellyfish will remain.