tickets are $15, BUT i can get them for $5 each here at BC--no limit! i'm going to try to go this Saturday, i think...
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/artsCulture/view.bg?articleid=66355
Transparent buoyant beauties float into the New England Aquarium
By Chris Bergeron / News Staff Writer
Thursday, April 22, 2004
BOSTON -- Like other sea critters in "Finding Nemo," Marlin and Dory had an understandably fishy view of the gelatinous zooplankton mistakenly called "jellyfish."
Indeed, the translucent blobs glow with eerie radiance. Some sting with lethal effectiveness. They're found from the Barrier Reef to the Arctic Ocean all the way to the Rhode Island coast.
And, they're misunderstood.
Enter the wet and wondrous world of "Amazing Jellies" in a fun new exhibit at the New England Aquarium in Boston.
Thousands of jellies representing dozens of different species float, flutter and squish through 5,000 square feet of water in customized tanks.
Visitors can stay dry but meet moon jellies, Atlanta sea nettles, egg yolk jellies and very weird creatures named salps that resemble day-glow milk bottles.
First off, Museum Curator of Fishes Steve Bailey wants to clarify something nearly everyone gets wrong: "Jellyfish is not a scientific term. We like to call them 'jellies.'"
"Calling them jellyfish is like calling dogs, caterpillars and mice 'fuzzy.'" explained Bonnie Epstein, the aquarium's principal investigator who helped organize the show.
Many sea jellies belong to a group of animals scientists define as "Cnidaria" from a Greek word meaning "nettle," or "plant with stinging thorns." Most jellies have a mushroom-shaped bell, frilly tentacles and a prehistoric sensory system that's kept them alive for 600 million years.
Combining ethereal beauty with toxic defenses, jellies are natural miracles that saw the dawn of fish life and have adapted to human intrusions on their watery world.
Unlike the single-minded stinging creatures who frighten Marlin, the clown fish who's searching for his missing son in "Finding Nemo," real-life jellies are marvels of variety and evolutionary efficiency.
Like a plate of sushi, the aquarium exhibit divides the jelly world into six bite-sized parts: Neighbors, Beauties, Adaptors, Predators, Survivors and Opportunists.
Staring into a tank full of pulsing gooey color, Jarrod Roberts offers a perfectly appropriate second-grader's reaction: "Everything is very exciting in an ocean-y way," said the 8-year-old from Shirley. "It feels like I'm underwater with them."
His 8-year-old pal, Eric Dill, agreed jellies are "pretty cool," especially the ones that are "pink and red and orange and yellow and blue."
Trying to offer an adult perspective, Kerry Kearney, of Winthrop, gazed at a lion's mane jelly and just shook her head.
The Winthrop mom gently nudged her young children, Kieran, 7, and Andrew, 5, toward a tank of jellies with fidgeting tentacles.
"It just makes me think there's all these natural wonders words can't describe. It'd take music or poetry to explain how they make me feel," she said.
Bailey said jellies have survived the Earth's five great extinctions that eliminated an estimated two-thirds of all living creatures.
Since jellies normally live in ocean currents, aquarium staff designed special tanks to suit their needs, including a special 16-foot "super stretch tank," built in Japan for $85,000, to house Pacific sea nettles known for the stinging power of their red-fringed tentacles.
"Jellies need very specialized currents. They're not used to boundaries. Their body surface isn't used to friction or to insult," Bailey said.
Bailey said jellies' numbers are increasing despite the introduction of deadly chemicals into fresh and salt water through fertilizer and sewerage runoff.
"Jellies do better with less oxygen than other fish," he said.
Adding to their adaptability, jellies can reproduce sexually or asexually, without partners.
Despite their bad reputation, only 70 out of approximately 2,000 jelly species are considered harmful to humans, said Bailey. Jellies found in Boston waters have "mild" stings, he said.
Though old wives tales offer many folksy remedies for jelly stings, including human urine, Bailey said the most effective treatment appears to be meat tenderizer.
Aquarium publicist Tony LaCasse called jellies "the cockroaches and pigeons of the marine world" for their ability to survive natural and human predators.
"There are more pollutants in the oceans. There are fewer predators," he said. "But sea jellies are thriving under human activity. They're filling an ecological niche."
Epstein said classifying jellies can get tricky.
Jellies don't have gills, fins, spines, hearts, brains, blood or eyes like most fish.
While most jellies are cnidarians, jellies also include salps and ctenophores which do not sting.
Featuring "homegrown" jellies cultivated over the last two years by aquarium staff, the exhibit balances visual beauty with crucial environmental lessons.
Jellies just might be the most enchanting predators to swim through the human imagination. Their prehistoric adaptability, said Epstein, threatens the delicate ecological balance governing ocean life.
They live off plankton, microscopic organisms found in water, using their feathery tentacles to push food into a stomach pouch. "Jellies are not fussy eaters," Epstein said.
For those reasons, jellies do "not make good pets and should not be introduced into aquariums," she said.
Maritime surveys indicate the jelly population is increasing even as modern fishing methods eliminate their competitors and the changing environment raises ocean temperatures.
The exhibit demonstrates how sea walnut jellies, probably deposited in the Black Sea by ships' ballast, have consumed so many native fish they've destroyed the commercial fishing industry in the region.
Epstein hopes visitors come away with an enhanced awareness that human actions at the personal and international levels contribute to jellies predatory successes.
"Our choices are changing the oceans," she said. "Human activity may have consequences we don't yet understand."
"Amazing Jellies" is an spectacular eyeful that reminds us to appreciate the ocean's treasures.
Nemo learned that.
THE ESSENTIALS:
The New England Aquarium is located at Central Wharf in Boston.
Tickets prices are: adults, $15.95; seniors (60+), $13.95; children (3-11), $8.95; members, free.
Group rates are available, including rates for special needs visitors; for reservations and details, call 617-973-5206.
The aquarium is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Separate rates and times apply to the Whale Watch and IMAX Theatre.
For more information, call 617-973-5200 or visit the Internet Web site, www.neaq.org.
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/artsCulture/view.bg?articleid=66355
Transparent buoyant beauties float into the New England Aquarium
By Chris Bergeron / News Staff Writer
Thursday, April 22, 2004
BOSTON -- Like other sea critters in "Finding Nemo," Marlin and Dory had an understandably fishy view of the gelatinous zooplankton mistakenly called "jellyfish."
Indeed, the translucent blobs glow with eerie radiance. Some sting with lethal effectiveness. They're found from the Barrier Reef to the Arctic Ocean all the way to the Rhode Island coast.
And, they're misunderstood.
Enter the wet and wondrous world of "Amazing Jellies" in a fun new exhibit at the New England Aquarium in Boston.
Thousands of jellies representing dozens of different species float, flutter and squish through 5,000 square feet of water in customized tanks.
Visitors can stay dry but meet moon jellies, Atlanta sea nettles, egg yolk jellies and very weird creatures named salps that resemble day-glow milk bottles.
First off, Museum Curator of Fishes Steve Bailey wants to clarify something nearly everyone gets wrong: "Jellyfish is not a scientific term. We like to call them 'jellies.'"
"Calling them jellyfish is like calling dogs, caterpillars and mice 'fuzzy.'" explained Bonnie Epstein, the aquarium's principal investigator who helped organize the show.
Many sea jellies belong to a group of animals scientists define as "Cnidaria" from a Greek word meaning "nettle," or "plant with stinging thorns." Most jellies have a mushroom-shaped bell, frilly tentacles and a prehistoric sensory system that's kept them alive for 600 million years.
Combining ethereal beauty with toxic defenses, jellies are natural miracles that saw the dawn of fish life and have adapted to human intrusions on their watery world.
Unlike the single-minded stinging creatures who frighten Marlin, the clown fish who's searching for his missing son in "Finding Nemo," real-life jellies are marvels of variety and evolutionary efficiency.
Like a plate of sushi, the aquarium exhibit divides the jelly world into six bite-sized parts: Neighbors, Beauties, Adaptors, Predators, Survivors and Opportunists.
Staring into a tank full of pulsing gooey color, Jarrod Roberts offers a perfectly appropriate second-grader's reaction: "Everything is very exciting in an ocean-y way," said the 8-year-old from Shirley. "It feels like I'm underwater with them."
His 8-year-old pal, Eric Dill, agreed jellies are "pretty cool," especially the ones that are "pink and red and orange and yellow and blue."
Trying to offer an adult perspective, Kerry Kearney, of Winthrop, gazed at a lion's mane jelly and just shook her head.
The Winthrop mom gently nudged her young children, Kieran, 7, and Andrew, 5, toward a tank of jellies with fidgeting tentacles.
"It just makes me think there's all these natural wonders words can't describe. It'd take music or poetry to explain how they make me feel," she said.
Bailey said jellies have survived the Earth's five great extinctions that eliminated an estimated two-thirds of all living creatures.
Since jellies normally live in ocean currents, aquarium staff designed special tanks to suit their needs, including a special 16-foot "super stretch tank," built in Japan for $85,000, to house Pacific sea nettles known for the stinging power of their red-fringed tentacles.
"Jellies need very specialized currents. They're not used to boundaries. Their body surface isn't used to friction or to insult," Bailey said.
Bailey said jellies' numbers are increasing despite the introduction of deadly chemicals into fresh and salt water through fertilizer and sewerage runoff.
"Jellies do better with less oxygen than other fish," he said.
Adding to their adaptability, jellies can reproduce sexually or asexually, without partners.
Despite their bad reputation, only 70 out of approximately 2,000 jelly species are considered harmful to humans, said Bailey. Jellies found in Boston waters have "mild" stings, he said.
Though old wives tales offer many folksy remedies for jelly stings, including human urine, Bailey said the most effective treatment appears to be meat tenderizer.
Aquarium publicist Tony LaCasse called jellies "the cockroaches and pigeons of the marine world" for their ability to survive natural and human predators.
"There are more pollutants in the oceans. There are fewer predators," he said. "But sea jellies are thriving under human activity. They're filling an ecological niche."
Epstein said classifying jellies can get tricky.
Jellies don't have gills, fins, spines, hearts, brains, blood or eyes like most fish.
While most jellies are cnidarians, jellies also include salps and ctenophores which do not sting.
Featuring "homegrown" jellies cultivated over the last two years by aquarium staff, the exhibit balances visual beauty with crucial environmental lessons.
Jellies just might be the most enchanting predators to swim through the human imagination. Their prehistoric adaptability, said Epstein, threatens the delicate ecological balance governing ocean life.
They live off plankton, microscopic organisms found in water, using their feathery tentacles to push food into a stomach pouch. "Jellies are not fussy eaters," Epstein said.
For those reasons, jellies do "not make good pets and should not be introduced into aquariums," she said.
Maritime surveys indicate the jelly population is increasing even as modern fishing methods eliminate their competitors and the changing environment raises ocean temperatures.
The exhibit demonstrates how sea walnut jellies, probably deposited in the Black Sea by ships' ballast, have consumed so many native fish they've destroyed the commercial fishing industry in the region.
Epstein hopes visitors come away with an enhanced awareness that human actions at the personal and international levels contribute to jellies predatory successes.
"Our choices are changing the oceans," she said. "Human activity may have consequences we don't yet understand."
"Amazing Jellies" is an spectacular eyeful that reminds us to appreciate the ocean's treasures.
Nemo learned that.
THE ESSENTIALS:
The New England Aquarium is located at Central Wharf in Boston.
Tickets prices are: adults, $15.95; seniors (60+), $13.95; children (3-11), $8.95; members, free.
Group rates are available, including rates for special needs visitors; for reservations and details, call 617-973-5206.
The aquarium is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Separate rates and times apply to the Whale Watch and IMAX Theatre.
For more information, call 617-973-5200 or visit the Internet Web site, www.neaq.org.
