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Of all the weird and wonderful creatures living under the sea, perhaps the strangest are jellyfish- those rubbery, cone-shaped creatures found floating in the water, their long tentacles trailing behind. 촉수를 따라가는
Soem jellyfish species have a bad reputation for scaring away tourists, clogging up fishing nets, and even blocking power station pipes.
But with more and more plastic rubbish ending up in the sea, these days you're as likely to swim into a plastic bag as a jellyfish. Now scientific research is discovering that these rubbery sea creatures might provide an answer- a sticky solution to the problem of plastic pollution.
In this programme, we'll be learning how jellyfish mucus could provide the answer to plastic waste in the sea. And of course we'll be learning some related vocabulary along the way.
But first it's time for my quiz question. Georgina, you mentioned jellyfish scaring away beach goers with with their sting, but what is the best way to treat jellyfish stings? Is it:
a) with ice? b) with salt?, or , c) with vinegar?
Well, Neil, I have been stung by a jellyfish before and I think the best way to treat them is, c) with binegar.
Ok, Georgina, we'll find out later if that's right. Now, as I mentioned, in recent years tiny pieces of plastic called microplastic have been a significant problem for the world's seas and oceans. They've been found all over the world-in Arctic ice, at the bottom of the sea and even inside animals, including humans.
Slovenian scientist, Dr. Ana Rotter, heads Go Jelly, a European reaearch team of jellyfish ecologists looking into the problem. Here hse is speaking to BBC World Service programme, People Fixing the world:
Microplastics, plastics in general, are being an increasing problem- they're everywhere. When I was a little girl we were more environmentally friednly, not knowing...so we never used plastic bags to go shopping, we always went with a cloth bags, we never used plastic to put our vegetable in it, single-use spoons, or forks, knives... this is for me something unheard of when I was a little girl.
Dr. Rotter says when she was a child, people were more environmentally friendly- not harmful to the environment or having the least possible impact on it.
At that time, there were very few single-use plastics- plastic items, like spoons and forks, designee to be used just once, then thrown away.
Single-use plastic bags, for example, were unheard of- surprising or shocking because they were not previously known about for commonly used.
The situation since then has changed dramatically. In fact, there's been such an increase in microplastics that thody the UN lists plastic pollution as one of the world's top environmental threats. But how do jellyfish fit into the story?
Well, it's the 'jelly' part of jellyfish, and specifically their sticky, jelly-like mucus that is key. Here's Dr. Rotter again, explaining more to BBC World Service programme, People Fixing the world:
The mucus- this is a like a viscous substance that is being exceted from a jellyfish, might have they are called absorptive properties...so it means that the particles- various particles can attach to this mucus... so, could we use jellyfish and their mucus as a magnet for the microplastic particles?
Jellyfish produce a thick, sticky liquid called mucus. Dr. Rotter has discovered that this mucus has strong absorptive properties- it can absorb, take in liquids and other substances and hold them in.
One of the substances jellyfish mucus absorbs anre the particles that make up microplastics. By trapping these timy pieces of floating plastic, the mucus acts like a magnet- an object that attracts certain materials, like metal, or in this case, microplastic waste.
As rising sea temperatures and overfishing of their natural predators have boosted jellyfish numbers, this novel way of using their mucus couldn't have come at a better time.
Dr. Rotter's researh is still in the early stages, but it's hoped that jellyfish mucus could hold the key to a future free of microplastic polluted oneans.
Which is a big prize for the cost of few jellyfish stings. Speaking of which, Neil, what was the correct answer to your quiz question?