Floating Jellyfish-Like Creatures Threaten New England Fisheries

Tiny jellyfish-like sea creatures called hydroids are menacing the commercially valuable fisheries of New England’s Georges Bank, California researchers said Wednesday. The hydroids, which normally remain anchored to the ocean floor, are floating freely in the fishery waters, threatening cod and haddock stocks that have already been decimated by overfishing, according to biologist Steve Bollens of San Francisco State University.

The hydroids, about 0.1 of an inch long, eat most of the daily production of small crustaceans that the larvae of the fish rely on. They also attack and kill the larvae, Bollens said. Researchers don’t know why the hydroids are floating freely, but speculate that they could have been dislodged by seasonal storms or commercial trawlers.