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Transportation of organic matter to the sea floor by carrion falls of the giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai in the Sea of Japan

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Abstract

The fate of the giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai after death was examined in the southwest Sea of Japan. The density of dead jellyfish was greater than that of live animals. The dead animals are heavier than the Japan Sea Proper Water which occurs deeper than 200 m, suggesting that dead jellyfish sink to the sea floor. The sea floor survey, conducted with a towed video tape recorder (VTR) monitoring system between mid September and mid October, observed a total of 138 jellyfish during 28 of 29 operations. The density of carrion ranged between 0.2 and 5.1 individuals/1,000 m2 (mean ± SE = 1.1 ± 0.2). Ophiuroids occurred abundantly at 23 jellyfish carcasses and a sea anemone was observed attached to five carcasses. The VTR surveys confirmed that carrion sinks to the sea floor not only during the winter, the normal end of life for medusae, but also during the fall. A trap survey baited with medusae was also employed, and four different species were sampled with the traps: the snow crab (Chionoecetes opilio), a shrimp (Pandalopsis japonica), the ivory shell (Buccinum striatissimum) and an ophiuroid (Ophiura sarsii). Much of the trap bait remained (49–68% weight-mean = 60.3%) during the 23 h soak-time, and the reduction in weight was greater than that observed by bacterial decomposition, suggesting benthic animals consume dead organisms. The present study indicates that dead N. nomurai sink to the sea floor continuously and were subsequently consumed by benthic scavengers.

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Acknowledgments

We thank captains and crew of R/V Tajima and Fukui Maru for their help on board, and N. Yamamoto, S. Mannami and T. Matsuura for sampling the live jellyfish. Thanks to Y. Sakurai and S. Fukui for discussion and comments on the manuscript. The manuscript was greatly improved by the constructive comments of anonymous reviewers.

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Author notes

  1. Miyuki Hirose

    Present address: Japan Sea National Fisheries Research Institute, 1-5939-22 Suido-cho, Niigata, Niigata, 951-8121, Japan

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Field Science Center for Northern Biosphere, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8611, Japan

    Jun Yamamoto

  2. Graduate School of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University, 3-1-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate, Hokkaido, 041-8611, Japan

    Miyuki Hirose, Yasuzumi Fujimori & Tohru Mukai

  3. Hyogo Prefectural Technology Center for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Tajima Fisheries Technology Institute, 1126-5 Sakai Kasumi-Ku, Kami, Hyogo, 669-6541, Japan

    Tetsuya Ohtani & Nobuo Shimamoto

  4. Fukui Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, 23-1 Urasoko, Tsuruga, Fukui, 914-0843, Japan

    Katashi Sugimoto & Kazue Hirase

  5. Tottori Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, 107 Takenouchi-Danchi, Sakaiminato, Tottori, 684-0046, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Shimura & Natsumi Honda

Authors
  1. Jun Yamamoto
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  2. Miyuki Hirose
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  7. Tsuyoshi Shimura
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jun Yamamoto.

Additional information

Communicated by S. Nishida.

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Yamamoto, J., Hirose, M., Ohtani, T. et al. Transportation of organic matter to the sea floor by carrion falls of the giant jellyfish Nemopilema nomurai in the Sea of Japan. Mar Biol 153, 311–317 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-007-0807-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-007-0807-9

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