Pardon me?
You have a jellyfish in your throat?
What should you do?
Well first, I’d, you know, spit it out.
Then, add a little peanut butter.
You’re probably at the beach, so your peanut butter and jellyfish will land in the … sand…which
… makes a great lunch!
Hey don’t blame me, send your complaints to the writer.
I thought it was a great pun myself.
But seriously, I’m sure it was an accident.
Even if you swallowed Mr. Jelly to protect him from a hungry seagull, or because you
wanted to impress a girl—that won’t work by the way—gulping him down is a really
bad idea for both of you.
Get help immediately: talk to a lifeguard or call an ambulance.
Even common jellyfish can make you really sick, and all jellyfish have stingers.
You might not think so, because in some, the stingers are too short to pierce human skin.
Those ones won’t hurt us.
That is … unless you swallow them.
The sensitive membranes inside your mouth and lining of your throat are thinner, and
therefore easier to pierce than your epidermis (that’s the tougher skin you wear on the
outside).
Getting stung or sick is bad news for you, but being swallowed is even worse news for
Mr. Jelly!
It’s dark in there.
He’s terrified.
(He is spineless after all!)
And he’s right to be scared because, although you may be a friendly person, your stomach
is definitely a “hostile environment.”
The acids in your stomach are really uncomfortable for any creature used to saltwater.
Conversely, saltwater is uncomfortable for your stomach.
Salt’s not poisonous; a little saltwater won’t harm you.
Almost all of us swallow some seawater at the beach.
But it is an emetic.
That means, if you swallow too much, it’s likely to come back up.
And while this might be bad manners, it’s probably a good idea if you just swallowed
a jellyfish.
So.
If you do swallow a jellyfish you should just drink salt water, right?
No.
You should seek medical attention.
Sometimes things are worse than they feel.
Let’s take the case of the lifeguard in Australia who drank jellyfish water.
Yeah, I know it sounds strange.
Here’s how it happened:
A teenage lifeguard in Australia was rushed to the hospital after he drank a jellyfish
and tentacle infusion.
It seems someone at the surf club where he worked had saved a few tentacles of the extremely
venomous Box Jellyfish in a jar of water and left it in the club refrigerator.
They didn’t intend to drink it; they were planning to donate it to a local lab.
But the lifeguard was thirsty; he mistook the jellyfish-water for something more refreshing.
As soon as he swallowed, he realized his mistake and alerted his co-workers.
Good thing too.
He was already having trouble breathing by the time the paramedics arrived.
Yikes.
So, it might surprise you to learn that, right at this very moment, lots of people are swallowing
jellyfish on purpose!
And paying lots of money for the pleasure.
All over the world, but especially in Asia, jellyfish are a popular food.
And, not in a peanut butter sandwich.
(But, hey, if you try it, tell me how it tastes.)
In fact, so many people swallow jellyfish —on purpose— that the world harvests almost
354,000 tons of them every year!
The leading countries are in Asia, where jellyfish are both fished and farmed.
In China, they even raise baby jellyfish in ponds, and then move them to the ocean to
increase the jellyfish population.
But in Japan, they have too much of a good thing.
Still, you can swallow jellyfish there!
In fact, they’d like you to!
You see, Japan’s waters are teeming with “Nomura’s Jellyfish.”
These guys weigh in at a colossal 450 pounds!
They’re so big that when they get caught in a fisherman’s net, they can sink the
ship!
Ooh, like a Sumo jellyfish!
You can’t swallow one whole, but even if you can only manage one little bite, Japan
will thank you.
You see, the over-abundance of Nomura’s Jellyfish has become such a problem that the
Japanese government decided the best way to deal with them is to have them over for dinner.
Not to play cards.
Or to dish about other fish.
But “for” dinner.
—and lunch.
—and even a really cool dessert we’ll talk about later.
Incredibly— despite having more Nomura’s Jellyfish than they can handle—Japan imports
an additional 5-10,000 tons of edible jellyfish every year.
They can be eaten in a few different ways:
Desalinated, (that means the salt’s been removed) Jellyfish don’t have much flavor,
but they have hardly any fat and can add texture to food, or even be served alone if they’re
dressed with something really spicy, like chili sauce.
Yum!
Other popular jellyfish dishes include: - Jellyfish pickles.
- Jellyfish sushi.
- Jellyfish with white rice and sesame sauce.
- And Jellyfish complimenting Shredded Chicken.
(You look mahvelous.)
Health-nuts will even tell you that Jellyfish Chips are a fabulous alternative to the potato
kind!
Remember, all this doesn’t mean that you should just pop the jellyfish you find on
the beach into your mouth.
They can make you sick if not prepared properly, so go to cooking school first!
And that cool dessert I mentioned earlier?
It’s cool for two reasons.
One: what’s cooler than…
Jellyfish Ice-Cream!
Two: It’s Bioluminescent!
This Bioluminescent Jellyfish Ice Cream glows in the dark!
And when you eat it, the PH on your tongue reacts with the luminescent proteins to make
your tongue glow too!
Wow!
I don’t know how it tastes, but I really want to try it.
Unfortunately, last I heard, it was selling for about $200 a scoop.
So, it might be a while.
Maybe you’ll buy me some; my birthday is coming up!
Bioluminescence is really cool; and I mean literally cool: it’s a natural light without
heat!
(As opposed to hot light, like from the sun or electricity.)
A lot of sea life, especially in the deep sea where it’s super-dark, have this amazing
feature.
Bioluminescence allows half of all jellyfish to glow!
Above ground, bioluminescence is rare, but you can find it in fireflies and glow worms
(which aren’t really worms at all, but that’s another video!)
Considering a lot of bigger fish also eat Jellyfish as part of their diet, it’s comforting
to know that if you get in trouble and a whale swallows you, there’s a good chance he’ll
swallow a luminescent jellyfish too.
You’ll be able to read by the light!
And if you swallow a Luminescent Jellyfish, your doctor won’t need a flashlight when
she looks down your throat!
Here’s another cool thing about these bright jellies: Scientists believe that Bioluminescent
Jellyfish use flashes of light to communicate; kind of like an underwater light house.
They also use flashes to attract a mate.
Some jellyfish use bioluminescence as camouflage.
Instead of looking like a rock, the way stone fish do, the bioluminescence makes these jellyfish
resemble a sunspot.
When their predators swim beneath them and look up, they squint against the light and
mistake that glow for the sun in their eyes.
If that doesn’t work—and this is really creepy, but also cool—a jellyfish can detach
one of its flashing tentacles and leave it behind.
As it falls through the water, it goes on flashing and lures the predator away.
Then Mr. Jelly douses his own light and sneaks off!
Even cooler, he’ll regrow that tentacle in a process called regeneration.
You don’t have to go diving to see these glowing guys either; most aquariums have jellyfish,
and they often have bioluminescent ones—usually in a slightly darkened room so you can really
appreciate them.
They come in all different colors and turn themselves off and on.
It’s worth the trip!
People swallow jellyfish for medicinal and magical reasons too.
Some think that eating them will ease muscle pain or improve memory.
As for magic, well, I’m not saying eating jellyfish powder will make that girl in math
class fall in love with you, but the Chinese have been using dried jellyfish as a love
potion for over 1700 years.
So remember: if you swallow Mr. Jelly, and he goes down to your belly, take yourself
right to the deli, before you get too smelly, and say hi to Mr. Kelly, then go home and
watch the telly.
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