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First record of wild ephyrae of the giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai

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Abstract

To understand the causes and to control harmful blooms of the giant Nomura’s jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai, it is essential to study the seed population (benthic polyps) and its environment. To locate the habitat of polyps, the first step is to find ephyrae shortly after detachment from polyps. We found five ephyrae of N. nomurai of 1–2 mm diameter for the first time from plankton samples collected at two sites, one specimen in the northwestern East China Sea (32°12.3′N, 123°12′E) and the other four specimens in the Yellow Sea (34°05.8′N, 121°50.0′E), on 22 and 26 May 2011. From the developmental state and water temperature of ca. 16 °C at the sampling stations, the collected ephyrae were estimated to have detached from polyps in early May of the year. Considering the increase of water temperature which induces strobilation and the direction of transport in the northwestern East China Sea and in the Yellow Sea, the locality of the seed polyps of the present specimens is probably the sea-floor close to the Changjiang River mouth and along the coast of Jiangsu Province.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the Ministry of Agriculture of the People’s Republic of China and the Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences for permitting this cooperative survey within China’s exclusive economic zone. We thank Drs. Toshiya Suzuki and Kaoru Nakata of the Fisheries Research Agency who coordinated the contract of the cooperative survey between the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute of China and Japan’s Fisheries Research Agency. We also thank Ms. Keiko Cho for help in communication between Chinese and Japanese participants. We thank two anonymous reviewers and Dr. Jennifer Purcell for reading the manuscript and giving constructive comments. This work was financed by the project “International Cooperative Survey of Giant Jellyfish” provided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan for the fiscal years 2008–2012.

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Author notes

  1. Hideki Akiyama

    Present address: Hokkaido National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency, 2-2 Nakanoshima, Toyohira, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 062-0922, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Fisheries Research Agency, 1551-8 Tairamachi, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, 851-2213, Japan

    Masaya Toyokawa, Masashi Shibata & Hideki Akiyama

  2. East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Fisheries Sciences, 300 Zhungong Road, Shanghai, 200090, People’s Republic of China

    Jia-Hua Cheng, Hui-Yu Li, Jian-Zhong Ling, Nan Lin, Zun-Lei Liu & Yi Zhang

  3. National Research Institute of Fisheries Science, Fisheries Research Agency, 2-12-4 Fukuura, Kanazawa, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 236-8648, Japan

    Manabu Shimizu

Authors
  1. Masaya Toyokawa
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  2. Masashi Shibata
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  3. Jia-Hua Cheng
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Correspondence to Masaya Toyokawa.

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Toyokawa, M., Shibata, M., Cheng, JH. et al. First record of wild ephyrae of the giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai . Fish Sci 78, 1213–1218 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-012-0550-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12562-012-0550-0

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