There are reports that mass jelly fish are floating on the surface water of Mumbai seashore, and the people, who are taking bath in the water, are suffering from various complications by coming in contact with the fish. When the jelly fish come in the contact with human body, it causes irritation and itching. Skin problem is developed and it requires medical intervention.

Now, more than 150 people have suffered and thousands and thousands of jelly fish are now being noticed in the coast water of the Arabian sea. Jelly fish is boneless. It looks like a transparent umbrella having no handle. It is further having a number of tentacles, which are also boneless and poisonous. The fish eats smaller fish and is found in coral reefs. The tentacles of the fish are very poisonous. They can sting and irritate. The fish is abundantly available in Odisha sea-coast and in the Chilika lagoon. The floating of jelly fish in mass shows that it is gregarious by nature. The species looks harmless, but practically, it is quite lethal. It is a most venomous creature; and every year, a number of people die due to attack of certain kinds of box- jelly fish. They are found only in tropical coastal waters. The home of this species is the mouths of the river, where the rivers join the sea. There are various types of jelly fish. Commonly, they are having Jelatinous saclike body with single opening mouth, technically known as coelenterate and are an invertebrate.

Sometime back, dead jelly fish were seen in quite good numbers in Puri coast, which created panic among the people. The jelly fish always floats over the water body of sea; so it is very prone to the harmful effect of pollution of sea. In the river mouths are seen half-fresh salty water, dominated by tides and mud. The estuaries are also known as coastal wetlands. At high flood, the salty water pushes back the river and in floods the fresh water with silt form the flats of mud and sand.

Mangrove forests are seen in the salty locality of tropical sub-tropical zone. These areas are commonly highly polluted through rivers and by the action of the man. Different types of fish and crustaceans are found in the estuaries. A flat fish, known as ‘shocking jelly’, sometimes noticed in the estuary, is also called as “electric ray”. The flat fish is almost circular in outline and this is a wonderful creation of nature. The electric ray can stun its preys or aggressors through shocks exhausting from jelly like batteries in both side of its body.

A large ray fish can produce a shock of over 200 volts. The food of ray is crustacean and fish. There are many tips of flat fish such as sole, dab, plaice, turbot, and halibut. They look like flat fish but in real sense, they are different types of fish. The ray fish has skeleton, but not of bones and of rubbery cartilages. There are 710 species of cartilaginous fish. They look flattened from head to bottom.

There are 20,000-odd bony fish species, but their bodies are flattened. They rest on seabed. There are other types of wonderful fish which show features that are common in many reef dwellers. The male jewelfish are brightly coloured with rounded fins with dorsal spines, but the females are of dull orange colour with angular fins. This fish changes its sex with age.

All coral creatures are not dangerous unless frightened. The highly poisonous is the stone fish which looks like a rough stone. There is porcupine fish, whose body blows like a balloon. The sword fish is found in sea, gulf and marine regions. Throne back ray, cod hatched fish, giant squid, prawn, angular fish porcupine fish are some other marine species. Blue- whale comes to marine land for collection of prey. Dolphins and penguins are found in Antarctic regions. Shark, turtle, flying fish, gulls, meellet, octopus, mackerel, shark, coral, curtle fish, hatchet fish, angle fish, shrimps etc are found in the water pool of Chilika.

The Aneneme are fish eaters; they catch tiny fish and shrimps. The examples are sea lettace and sea thongs. The other animals are bladder wracks and sea urchins. One can look for sea urchins but should be careful for their spines, which are very sharp and brittle. Usually on the beach, animal like “octopus” is sighted. It stays in hiding during the day time but hunts crabs at might. One can find one octopus on the piles of the shells of crabs, which are the remains of its meal. The octopus is very fond of crab meals.

The life on the sea is governed purely on three factors, such as sun light, water pressure and food. The sun light is having seven colours as we see in a rainbow. Each colour can only travel up to certain depth of sea water. The red light fades out first and the violet light goes deepest. Basing on the availability of sun light, the whole water systems of sun is divided on four zones. That is sun light zone, twilight zone, dark zone and abyss zone. The lives of ocean depend on availability of sunlight and oxygen.

The ocean creatures always depend on plant community directly or indirectly for their survival. The phytoplanktons are eaten by zoo planktons, which, in turn, are eaten by the larger zoo planktons. The small fish always strain sea water to extract planktons. The gills are the weapon of the fish to strain water. The larger predators as usual feed on the smaller fish. The creatures, who live in the deep sea, feed on dead plants and animals. The main factors of pollution of the ocean are shipping, tourism and industrial activities. 90 per cent goods are transported through ships which invite oil, garbage, light and sound pollutions.

At present, the Government of India wants to establish a “Water Aerodrome” at Chilika to develop tourism facilities to enjoy scenic views of lake by the tourists. This will not confine to Chilika alone, this will make circuit by covering Bhitarkanika, (Rajnagar), Chandipur, Similipal, Hirakud and Gopalpur. This is a very dangerous concept of the Central Government. All these ecological spots are very sensitive. The economic exploitations of the areas will spoil the natural character of the ecosystems.

(The writer is a former forest officer and an environmentalist. E-mail: nadiya.kanungo@gmail.com , M-9937460649)

Jelly fish in sea looks innocuous, but is lethal