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Welcome to episode sixty one of Get
It a Live, a podcast where me

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and your host Ashley every other week
tells you a new animal tack story.

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And I'm miro host Nick, And
I got stung by a beam I told

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the other day and it really hurt. Do you p on it? I

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did not bee on it? No, Ashley, why would I pay on

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on a beast thing when he's talking
about well, because today we're talking about

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an animal where some people get stung
and think that they should pee on it.

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Perfect transition, Thanks, Nick,
I must be bears, right,

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Yeah, it's definitely bears. So
we have a fantastic guest today. But

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before we get to that interview,
we're going to do a quick and dirty

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overview of the species that we're talking
about in general, for stuff that we

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didn't cover in the interview, Nick, what are we talking about jellyfish?

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So before we get into that interview
as well, I should note that during

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the interview, during the end,
the software that we record on glitched and

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you won't hear us saying goodbye to
the guest because the software was like,

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we stopped recording, so I was
panicking, so you won't hear me.

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Also, it's just me, not
Nick, because Nick had to work and

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our guest doctor Rebecca Helm is a
very busy person, so we didn't have

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a long time to chat. So
I tried to ask as many questions as

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I could and not have like filler
stuff. So we're gonna pop in after

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the interview like we normally do,
but we will tell you where to find

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her on socials. Then you did
great, by the way, it was

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an awesome interview. Thank you.
I tried, and she's obviously great.

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She's hilarious. I'm so excited.
And I found her, of course from

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an episode of Ologies where she was
a guest Andology, so I will link

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that episode in the description as well. And that episode is longer than ours

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is and they talk about like jellyfish
biology more than we do, so which

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from the interview I have learned jellyfisht
biology is quite quite varied. Crazy,

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Yeah, it's going on. Yeah, a lot of weird stuff for us

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humans. So we're talking about jellyfish. So there are four different types.

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There's the box jellyfish, and their
shaped like squares and have tentacles on four

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corners. They have well developed eyes
and are, according to Rebecca pretty clever

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and are good at navigating. Box
jellyfish have eyes. Yeah, I didn't

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know that. I know. There's
so many things to go there, like

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and even the stuff that you and
I are going to talk about in this

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intro is not going to cover all
of this stuff with jellyfish because we just

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yeah, well there's a lot of
jellyfish out there, so yeah, so

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remember box jellyfish for later. They're
important. Also, if I sound gross,

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it's because I'm sick, and Nick
is also sick, but in a

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different way, so apologize. Yeah, no, he's not. Then there's

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the under research star jellyfish also known
as star zoans, and they sit on

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the bottom of the body of water
that they're in and they don't sting and

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are shaped like wineglasses and have what
look like little pom poms at the end

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of them. Ooh cool, I've
never even heard of these. Yeah,

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yeah, honestly saying before, I
truly knew like nothing about jellyfish before going

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into this interview. So yeah,
there's a few things I learned. I'm

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excited to get to the outro and
talk about some of the stuff I learned

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in the interview because there's a bunch
of stuff in there. I was like,

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ooh, I could know that.
So next there's the water jellyfish hydrozoans,

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And aren't they all water jellyfish?
I mean technically, but these are

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called water jellyfish or hydrozoans. Yeah, and they are the most diverse group,

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with around two thousand species. But
they're all pretty small, clear,

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don't sting, And the average person
doesn't really know much about them, like

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you or I. I mean,
we're the average person. We don't know

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anything about jellyfish in general, so
we know even less about those. But

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these are probably like the group that
make up most of the jellyfish in the

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world. I would guess, yes, yeah, well maybe they're the diverse

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for sure. Okay, I got
you. Yeah. And then the last

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group are the siphozoa, and they
are the big charismatic jellyfish that you'll often

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see in aquariums. But these ones
dousting, so some have long, frilly

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tendrils. So what kind of what
I think of when I think of like

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a classic jellyfish, Like they have
like the wavy tentacles, amiss, like

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the other stringing tentacles. So that's
one group of those, But then the

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other half of that group looks like
they have cauliflower on the bottom, which

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helps them filter feeds. So instead
of those long tentacles, it's like cauliflower

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on the bottom. Okay, cool. Yeah, And they're around ten thousand

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species of jellyfish and around one hundred
of those species are dangerous to humans,

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and we will get more into that
later. Can't wait. There was also

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a question that we didn't get to
in the interview because, like I said,

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we had to I had to go
pretty fast so she could get back

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to being an awesome jellyfish researcher.
So I wanted to answer that question now.

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And if you would like to also
ask questions for our guests, you

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can join us on Patreon, Patreon, slash CATTLEI Podcasts, where you can

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find bonus episodes, bonus videos now, and other stuff. We got some

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good clips on there already. We
have one that I really like. We

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got one that really makes me laugh. Yeah, me too. So this

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question was posed by Vincent, who
asked what is the jellyfish's natural predator?

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And according to oceana dot org,
among the predators of the jellyfish, the

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following have been identified. Ocean sunfish, gray triggerfish, turtles, especially the

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leatherback sea turtle, some seabirds,
the whale shark, some crabs such as

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the arrow and hermit crabs, some
whales such as humpbacks, some nidarians such

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as an enemies, certain nooda branches
which are little small mollusks without shells.

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And also some jellyfish eat other jellyfish
species and they're known as medusavares. Cool,

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yeah, because jellyfish are medusa's owen's, which is dope. And this

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is probably a pretty good point to
mention. Don't throw your trash in the

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fucking ocean because a lot of the
plastic bags and stuff that float around getting

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this thing for jelly fish and a
lot of animals eat that and die.

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That's a good point that I didn't
even think to mention, So just would

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be a good point to throw that
in there, you know. Yeah,

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perfect care of your trash. Don't
throw all your plastic bags and just you

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know, normal trash because it will
get to the ocean and they will kill

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animals. You can recycle a lot
of plastic bags at like supermarkets and stuff,

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which I learned recently, So perfect. Yeah, So everyone check out

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your local supermarket see if you're gonna
start recycling those things, because I know

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I got a cabinet full of them. So yes, they definitely need to

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be better about that too. So
of course, the reason that we're talking

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about jellyfish today is because they can
possibly pose a threat to people, and

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we'll get more into that on how
they affect humans later in the episode,

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like in the interview, but in
the interest of time, we're going to

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talk about one story today and like
one attack story per se. But according

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to Live science dot com, there's
like no official tally on how many people

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die from jellyfish venom each year,
but they estimate it to be around one

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hundred people. Oh that's that's a
good amount. Yeah, it's not insignificant

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for sure. And you will likely
know if you've been stung, and if

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you're stung by jellyfish that has one
of the most deadly venoms in the world,

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you will likely go into shock before
you feel the pain of the sting.

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Oh now, and you could within
minutes get welts, blisters or a

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rash in the area where you were
stung, feel pain, and also start

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to feel faint. And just so
we're clear, getting or going into shock

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while you're swimming is a bad thing, right, yep, okay, yeah,

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I just want to make sure we
were on the same page about that.

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Yeah, okay, yeah, that'd
be unfortunate. Yeah, I mean,

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in general, I don't think it's
good for your body to go into

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shock. But yeah, as you're
in water, which we are not evolved

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to exist in. Well yeah,
yeah. So let's go over a story

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from February of last year, twenty
twenty two about a boy in Australia.

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Of course it's Australia, Doude.
We had that one listener from Australia reach

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out to us and they were like, I can't believe that you live around

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bears. I'm like, you could
go with the water and die at any

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moment. Literally everything around you could
kill you. Like, yeah, bears

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aren't that crazy, especially the ones
here. Yeah. To be fair though,

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they could be in the water waiting
for us. They just are.

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Oh and if you if you see
a freaking polar bear in the water,

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you get the hell away. I
saw a freaking video on a on Instagram

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recently where like there was a boat
like cruising around a polar bear in the

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water and the bear was very clear
trying to g after the boat, like,

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get the fuck away from it.
Why would you go? I don't

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understand these videos of people in boats
that go towards predators in the water.

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Oh way cycle paths. Also,
Yellowstone just posted a video. Sorry,

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this is a tangent. Guys,
Well you're here, you know you're getting

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this. Yeah, there was a
video of people at Yellowstone that just went

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viral, literally sprinting, got out
of their cars, started sprinting towards a

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mother black bear in two cubs and
one Yeah, I shared it on our

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TikTok get out Alive. One of
the people sprinting was carrying their child,

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running running towards a predator and that
predator's baby. You should not you should

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get your parent card revoked for running
towards a predator with your fucking child.

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And I'm sumthing. The bear is
pretty close, Like it's not like it

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was like a core mile away right
next to like they were so close to

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her. Thankfully the bear chose to
move away and her cubs moved away.

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But like, how stupid could you
be? And that is why black bears

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are big fat babies. That's why
we have this podcast. But please still

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don't do that. Yeah, no, absolutely not all right. So fourteen

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year old Mark Angelo Ligmaio had recently
moved to Australia from the Philippines and on

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February twenty sixth, twenty twenty two, Mark and his family were visiting a

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beach north of McKay, Australia.
Mark was standing in waste high water for

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about ten minutes when he suddenly came
running back to the beach screaming because he

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was wrapped up in two meters of
jellyfish tentacles. Oh my god. Yeah,

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and for us non metric folks,
that is six feet of tentacles.

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It's at a lot of feet it
is. So lifeguards rushed to his aid,

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pulled the tentacles off of him,
poured vinegar on him, and began

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administering CPR. Mark was rushed to
a hospital but unfortunately ended up dying from

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his injuries from the venom specifically.
And this is also following almost exactly a

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year after a seventeen year old boy
died from box jellyfish stings as well in

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Cape York, Australia, and his
death was the first from a jellyfish in

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fifteen years in the area and At
the time of the seventeen year old's death,

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a marine and jellyfish biologist, doctor
Lisa Ann Gershwin was furious because she

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was like, there are so many
ways to protect yourself from jellyfish or to

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remove jellyfish from the area. It
just is a matter of education and there

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is no reason to not implement those
things, and like implement these education programs,

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especially when you have kids who are
dying now twice so they have two

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years. They have ways of keeping
jellyfish away from the beaches. Yeah,

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they can rake the beaches or like
put nets up in swimming areas to keep

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them out of areas where people say, oh, yeah, I guess that's

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yeah. Nets are probably a pretty
good idea when you live in Australia.

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Yeah, for everything, for everything
that exists in the water. Yeah,

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all right, And we will use
that as our segue to get into our

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interview with doctor Rebecca Helm on how
we can live safely around jellyfish. Okay,

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my name is Rebecca Helm. My
pronouns are she her. At the

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earliest age, about fifteen years old, I was just obsessed with weird animals,

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and jellyfish are about as weird as
it gets and in terms of where

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I am now, I'm at Georgetown
University and I'm mostly working on jelly's at

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the surface of the ocean. Very
cool. And so I did listen to

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your Ologies episode because I love me
some Ali Ward and you had mentioned to

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her you were talking about your master's
work and how you discovered a chemical that

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can help jellyfish. I don't remember
the exact word for it, but help

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them like go into a different life
stage. Is that correct? Yeah,

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So jellyfish have a couple different stages
to their life. They're much more like

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frogs and butterflies than they are like
humans in the sense that they have intermediate

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life cycle stages or larvae. So
in butterflies we call those caterpillars, and

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in frogs we call those tadpoles.
Jellyfish have their own kind of larvae.

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We call them polyps, and they
look a little bit like teeny tiny sea

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anemonies. They stick to anything that's
hard on the seafloor, so shells,

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rocks, bits of dead coral,
docks. So if people have docks on

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the ocean, you might have some
jellyfish polyps on your dock. And when

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the conditions are right, so usually
that means sometime in the spring, those

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polyps will go through a metamorphic process
and produce tiny jellyfish. And so when

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I was in grad school, I
found that certain molecules will essentially trick the

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polyp into thinking that it's the right
time kind of any time, which is

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really convenient for science because waiting around
for polyps to be ready and willing every

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year once a year to make tiny
jellyfish heads a little bit too long of

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a timeline. So this meant we
could kind of trick polyps into making jellyfish

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whenever we wanted, which was great. Yeah, And why would you besides,

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like I guess, having it in
a lab setting, why would you

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want them to go into like from
a polyp to an adult jellyfish? Like,

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what's the benefit? Yeah, yeah, it's it's really helpful for us

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to understand, you know, basic
features about jellyfish biology. We know so

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little about the internal workings of jellyfish, especially through their lives, and so

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learning about how jellyfish grow, what
inhibits or hinders their growth, what spurs

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on or improves their growth, all
of these things can be answered much more

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easily if you have some control over
the life cycle, gotcha? Okay?

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And also what does a polyp even
look like? Because I hadn't even heard

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that they were polyps until I heard
you talk about them. I don't even

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know where I would start to look
for them. So they're kind of milky.

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They're small, about the size of
a bread crumb, kind of milky

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looking in color, and they look
like a little cnemone. So they have

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a body that shaped like a cup
with a whirl of tentacles around the lip.

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And when they're a polyp, like, what are they eating? How

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are they surviving? Just like hanging
on to something, they are just hanging

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on. They kind of attach on
the bottom and chill out kind of sway

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in the current. In comparison to
jellyfish, they are really boring to watch,

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Okay, don't do them a lot, but there their tentacles are just

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kind of out there and they catch
food passively, so you know, not

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like just sitting on the dock of
the bay with your fishing pole right waiting

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for something to swim by. That's
kind of how they do it. Twenty

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four seven three sixty five. Nice, that's not a bad would be I

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think it looks great and where in
the world can we find jellyfish. You

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can find jellyfish almost anywhere that there's
calm water, So every ocean from the

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Antarctic to the Arctic, all all
the way down to the bottom of the

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seafloor. You could also find jellyfish
in lakes, really nice, calm lakes.

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Even in the United States, there
are at least ten species of freshwater

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jellyfish. And then of course we
see jellyfish along coasts, but we can

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also find them way way out in
the open ocean, you know, thousand

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of miles from shore. So yeah, it has to be pretty calm.

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They don't like really rough waters,
no rivers, no really turbulent areas.

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They tend to get kind of chewed
up by really fast moving currents, and

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calm water is, yeah, is
what they love, and that's where we

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tend to find them. That is
so cool. So I guess, like,

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because I live near lakes, I
don't live necessarily near the ocean,

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and I've never thought about jellyfish being
in them. So, like, does

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a lake jellyfish look similar to an
ocean I mean, there's different species.

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I'm sure they all look different,
but like, do they have similar morphology

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from freshwater to salt water species they
do. Yeah, so lake jellyfish in

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the United States. It's kind of
a weird story. They were introduced from

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China a while ago, over one
hundred years ago now, I think just

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about and have sort of been spreading
around to different lakes as polyps. So

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polyops will stick to anything, including
like vegetation that might get stuck on bird

237
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feet or boats or things like that, and so as birds and boaters moved

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between lakes, the polyps move between
lakes and they make jellyfish. They're about

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the size of the nickel when they're
fully grown, so they're not super big,

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and they're kind of clear, a
little bit whitish, but they move

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just like a little jellyfish, and
you know, they're not particularly dangerous.

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I've handled them. I didn't feel
a sting. Some people say they feel

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00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:37,960
a little inch or a little pickle. But yeah, they're actually really beautiful,

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and unfortunately they're now threatened and endangered
in their native habitat in China because

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the lakes they used to live in
China are being heavily modified by human industries.

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So they're something of a refuge species, if you will. In the

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United States. They're invasive, not
native, but it's not really clear if

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we should try to get rid of
them because they might not really have other

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places to go. Yeah, I
was gonna ask that, like if they're

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considered invasive or are they like having
any negative effects on other native species.

251
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Well, I'm sure they're changing lake
ecology in some ways. Right, anytime

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you add a new species to an
ecosystem, there's some shift, even if

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it's a small shift. But the
question, the sort of broader question,

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is well, what does that shift
mean for us and for the lakes that

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we love so much? Right?
Are they going to damage the ecosystem or

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change the ecosystem in a way that
we don't like? And so far,

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I haven't seen any evidence to suggest
that's the case, that they're you know,

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really changing lakes. And suddenly this
lake is totally different because that's jellyfish

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00:18:55,079 --> 00:18:57,400
in it. You know, in
general, we see them blooming in the

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late summer, so actually this started. Jellyfish season is around August and September,

261
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perfect into the fall. Yeah,
and uh, and they do eat,

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you know, the things that are
in the lake. But in terms

263
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of whether or not they have an
impact, I think that's kind of going

264
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to depend on every lake, right, Yeah, it may not be too

265
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bad. So I hope they're not
that, but I'm biased. Yeah,

266
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absolutely, but it makes more interesting
research for you, So like our is

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this your busy season because they are
blooming? Well, I don't really study

268
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lake jellyfish. I tried to when
I was in grad school. So their

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full complicated scientific name is crass but
a custos so were I a real mouthful?

270
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Not my favorite freshwater jellyfish much easier
to say. And they were found

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in Walden Pod like the Rose Famous
pond when I was in graduate school,

272
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and so I went and I collected
some and I brought them back to the

273
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lab and I wanted to study them. And in order to study them,

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I needed to I needed to have
polyps. YEP, jellyfish aren't great to

275
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keep in the lab for long periods
of time. They're really fragile. Palms

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are like the weather resistant, stress
resistant super zen stage that you can keep

277
00:20:17,839 --> 00:20:22,119
in the lab and still have a
normal life and go on vacations and things

278
00:20:22,160 --> 00:20:26,359
like that. And of the three
hundred jellyfish that we collected from Walden Pond,

279
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:33,160
every single one was female. So
we couldn't close the life cycle,

280
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we couldn't get little baby polyps from
the jellyfish. It just totally crashed.

281
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A burn didn't work, and then
all the jellyfish went away for that year

282
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and I had to find something else
to do. So, oh my god.

283
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,319
Yeah, maybe one day I'll start
studying freshwater jellyfish again. But right

284
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now they're yeah, yeah, difficult, beautiful, challenging, yes, topic

285
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wow. So I guess that also
begs the question like how do jellyfish mate,

286
00:21:00,119 --> 00:21:04,279
Like, can they asexually reproduce or
does it have to be like a

287
00:21:04,319 --> 00:21:11,880
male and a female sperm egg situation? Every kind of way, every way

288
00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,240
you can think to do it,
they sort of do it, so they

289
00:21:14,279 --> 00:21:18,519
can asexually reproduce, And there are
definitely a lot of species that kind of

290
00:21:18,559 --> 00:21:25,000
go that route and just bud tiny
jellyfish off their big adult jellyfish body.

291
00:21:26,440 --> 00:21:32,599
They can also go through this sort
of elaborate little jellyfish mating dance where the

292
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:36,200
females will catch males in her technacles
and then she'll reel them all in and

293
00:21:36,279 --> 00:21:40,160
kind of compare them and then decide
which ones she likes best. And all

294
00:21:40,279 --> 00:21:44,759
wite with that one, Yeah,
and then most commonly they just sort of

295
00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,480
hit eggs and sperm into the water, just sort of unit like they just

296
00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:53,519
yeah, very unceremoniously kind of dump
eggs or sperm into the water and then

297
00:21:53,519 --> 00:21:56,720
they're on their own, right,
and it's like figure it out, eggs

298
00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:03,039
and sperm that go find each other
and that's how you get new jellies.

299
00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,039
That is so cool, what like
a feminist icon to just have jellyfish really

300
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and men and be like not that
one disgusting. Yeah, yeah, they're

301
00:22:11,519 --> 00:22:15,000
very cool. You know, a
lot of people underestimate jellies because they don't

302
00:22:15,039 --> 00:22:18,559
really have the same kind of nervous
system that we have. They don't have

303
00:22:18,720 --> 00:22:22,279
brains in the way we like to
think of brains, but they do have

304
00:22:22,319 --> 00:22:26,640
some pretty cool behaviors and they do
some really neat things with what they got.

305
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:30,519
So yeah, I'm all for the
feminist jellies, yes, Yeah,

306
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And I guess now is a good
time for this question that one of our

307
00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,000
patrons had, which I absolutely loved
and never even thought of. So our

308
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,720
patron, Carrie wanted to know can
jellyfish feel emotions like humans do? That

309
00:22:42,839 --> 00:22:48,480
is such a philosophically challenging question.
Yes answer. And it's so funny that

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00:22:48,519 --> 00:22:55,279
she asked that because I lived at
a zun center before I went to grad

311
00:22:55,319 --> 00:22:57,559
school. So I was like,
do I want to become like a Buddhist

312
00:22:57,720 --> 00:23:02,880
nun or do I want to be
scientist? I chose. I chose scientists.

313
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But I was also having this like
kind of doubt question of like can

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jellyfish feel pain? And I asked
a zen Buddhist master and they were like,

315
00:23:11,640 --> 00:23:15,960
I don't know. You're the one
that studies that, Like why are

316
00:23:15,079 --> 00:23:22,119
you asking me? So you know, we can't really ever know, right,

317
00:23:22,240 --> 00:23:27,200
even among like other fellow human beings, like exactly what someone is feeling,

318
00:23:27,279 --> 00:23:32,839
and if you know your version of
sadness is exactly the same as you

319
00:23:32,920 --> 00:23:36,160
experience it on the inside, is
like my version of sadness, right,

320
00:23:36,400 --> 00:23:38,880
And and in fact, they've done
really cool brain studies that show that,

321
00:23:40,000 --> 00:23:45,000
yeah, every person that feels sadness
like in their brain something kind of different

322
00:23:45,079 --> 00:23:51,359
happens compared to every other person.
So there's not like one brain pattern that's

323
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,599
like this is everybody on sadness,
right, or kind of doing it a

324
00:23:55,640 --> 00:23:59,720
little differently and have kind of different
ways to interpret what our bodies are feeling

325
00:23:59,799 --> 00:24:03,759
and so so then you kind of
think about, wow, okay, already

326
00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:11,240
this is really complicated for people.
What about something that has eight mini brains

327
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:15,839
around a central body and know one's
central brain, how do they feel and

328
00:24:15,920 --> 00:24:19,440
see and receive the world? And
I guess you know, what I can't

329
00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:25,759
say is that they do seem to
have a versive behavior. So if you

330
00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:33,160
poke them those from away, they
do seem to be excited or attracted to

331
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,960
certain things and demonstrate that through their
behavior. So some jellyfish really like being

332
00:24:37,000 --> 00:24:41,559
in the sun and they will swim
towards the light, right, And so

333
00:24:41,519 --> 00:24:47,680
it's definitely clear they have preferences,
right and and sort of in a weird

334
00:24:48,319 --> 00:24:52,119
roundabout way, they have opinions about
stuff. But whether you know they can

335
00:24:52,160 --> 00:25:03,200
feel like angry or mad or rest
or is essential dread, doesn't, you

336
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:06,960
know, doesn't seem like something that
we can really sort of figure out.

337
00:25:07,079 --> 00:25:14,079
I suspect that the way jellyfish preceides
the world is is totally beautiful and probably

338
00:25:14,119 --> 00:25:18,039
similar in some ways and probably in
other ways totally unique and kind of like

339
00:25:18,160 --> 00:25:26,079
trying to imagine a new prime color, right boy, Yeah, yeah,

340
00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:30,440
Like we sort of know in theories
that other species can see colors that we

341
00:25:30,519 --> 00:25:34,119
can't see. But like what you
can't even really imagine what that would look

342
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:38,480
like because we can't see it.
Yeah, exactly. The same is true

343
00:25:38,480 --> 00:25:42,400
with you know how jellyfish feel about
the world. Yeah, oh, but

344
00:25:42,480 --> 00:25:45,960
that's so cool. That could be
a whole rabbit hole we could go down

345
00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:51,839
forever like it is. You know
how other animals see the world is like

346
00:25:52,319 --> 00:25:56,039
a whole field in and of itself. Yeah, oh so good. So

347
00:25:56,319 --> 00:26:00,720
patron Robin asked how long did jellyfish
live for, either in wild or in

348
00:26:00,799 --> 00:26:06,160
captivity? Okay, I'm gonna ask
answer this like simple, and then I'm

349
00:26:06,160 --> 00:26:12,559
gonna get really complicated, perfect simple, like six months okay fish in the

350
00:26:12,599 --> 00:26:18,119
wild, and then you can add
a couple of years in captivity. So

351
00:26:18,279 --> 00:26:21,519
like, if you are really coddling
your jellyfish, they will live for like

352
00:26:21,559 --> 00:26:26,440
three or four years. They do
pretty well. Okay, medium level,

353
00:26:26,519 --> 00:26:33,640
complicated answer. Polyps can live for
like one hundred years at least. Okay,

354
00:26:33,839 --> 00:26:38,759
Yeah, and they're churning out new
jellyfish every year. And the polyp

355
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:45,680
to jellyfish metamorphosis is a little different
than the caterpillar to butterfly metamorphosis. They

356
00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:51,799
don't fully metamorphosed. They leave a
little bit behind. So it would be

357
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:56,799
like if a caterpillar. Caterpillar left
it's like back two legs and then like

358
00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:02,680
regrew into a new tiny cat.
Wow. Yeah, they kind of chunk

359
00:27:02,759 --> 00:27:06,920
themselves up when they go through metamorphosis, and so you can track like this

360
00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,440
is the same pollup that I had
last year the year before, even if

361
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,680
they are going through this process of
making jellyfish. Wow. And so yeah,

362
00:27:14,680 --> 00:27:17,960
we know they can live for a
really long time. And then if

363
00:27:17,960 --> 00:27:22,880
you really want to get complicated and
confused some jellyfish, if you sort of

364
00:27:23,599 --> 00:27:26,880
poke them, stab them, if
they get too hot, they get too

365
00:27:26,880 --> 00:27:30,359
cold, they essentially curl into a
little ball and kind of sink to the

366
00:27:30,400 --> 00:27:34,079
sea floor. It's a very relatable
thing really. Yeah. I also curl

367
00:27:34,119 --> 00:27:40,440
into a little ball people are mean
to me U and then they just grow

368
00:27:40,599 --> 00:27:45,079
into a polyp again. So they
yeah, they so they go backwards.

369
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:48,599
So it's sort of like, you
know, I turn into a bit of

370
00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:52,759
like a metaphorical baby when people are
mean to be literally turn back into babies.

371
00:27:53,559 --> 00:27:59,160
Wow. And we don't know if
that's something they can do like forever

372
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:03,079
or if eventually you do it enough, you know, in the universe kind

373
00:28:03,079 --> 00:28:07,279
of like you're like, stop it, You're done. Yeah, you don't

374
00:28:07,279 --> 00:28:10,559
have to turn back into a baby
anymore. Yeah, eating is sort of

375
00:28:10,599 --> 00:28:14,839
an inevitable thing. Even if you
can turn into a baby, you're still

376
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:17,680
like an older baby than you were
the first time. Yeah, baby,

377
00:28:17,759 --> 00:28:19,240
So we don't really know. We
don't really know how many times they can

378
00:28:19,319 --> 00:28:23,400
do that. But that complicates things
even further because then we have poly ups

379
00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:27,160
and it's like, well, are
these like og polyps it came from an

380
00:28:27,160 --> 00:28:32,039
egg and a sperm, or these
like your third time being a polyp?

381
00:28:32,039 --> 00:28:34,119
Polyps? Oh, that's so cool. Also, how cool that, like

382
00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,599
we don't know these things and there's
so much room for research to be done

383
00:28:37,680 --> 00:28:42,359
on it. That's so it's so
amazing. Like jellyfish is the ultimate job

384
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:48,119
security because you're never going to answer, like even the simple questions are still

385
00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:49,680
up for to be a discussion.
Yeah, Like that was one of the

386
00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:52,000
simplest questions. I asked you how
old are they? And you're like,

387
00:28:52,319 --> 00:28:56,759
yeah, who knows? Who knows? Really? Yeah? So cool.

388
00:28:57,279 --> 00:29:03,640
So I guess in a similar vein
patron Angela ask do jellyfish migrate or hibernate,

389
00:29:03,079 --> 00:29:06,799
and if they do those things,
do they tend to stay in groups

390
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:10,920
or in general, I guess do
they stay in groups? Yes, So

391
00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:18,000
some jellyfish do seem to like hang
out together. Sometimes that's because we think

392
00:29:18,039 --> 00:29:19,720
the currents just kind of swirl them
all together and they just kind of,

393
00:29:21,279 --> 00:29:25,680
you know, wind up in the
same place. But some jellyfish seem to

394
00:29:26,519 --> 00:29:30,400
like try to really hang out with
each other. So there's these jellyfish in

395
00:29:30,519 --> 00:29:37,319
fjords really deep down that will hold
tentacles, so they'll kind of like hold

396
00:29:37,319 --> 00:29:40,519
on to each other as they're swimming
through the water. Yeah, we don't

397
00:29:40,559 --> 00:29:44,079
know why. It's like they're they're
deep down, it's cold water. It's

398
00:29:44,079 --> 00:29:47,920
really hard to study them. But
you can see them on the sonar and

399
00:29:47,960 --> 00:29:52,440
they'll just be like two little little
jellyfish kind of traveling together. And if

400
00:29:52,440 --> 00:29:56,000
you send a camera down, sure
enough they're like they got their little tentacles

401
00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:02,240
wrapped around each other. Wow.
So that's really cool a mystery. Some

402
00:30:02,559 --> 00:30:07,759
jellyfish do migrate, and so one
great example would be the jellyfish in the

403
00:30:07,839 --> 00:30:14,559
Jellyfish Lakes in Palau. So there
are these beautiful round, kind of tennis

404
00:30:14,599 --> 00:30:21,119
ball shaped and sized golden jellyfish,
and they have algae that they grow in

405
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,839
their body, kind of like a
little garden that you can move around.

406
00:30:26,079 --> 00:30:30,079
So they've got this garden in their
body, and the whole lake's worth of

407
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,079
jellyfish will follow the sun throughout the
day, so you know, the sun

408
00:30:33,200 --> 00:30:37,319
rises in the east, and they'll
be at the westernmost part of the lake

409
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:41,759
kind of like ready and weeding to
catch those first waves rays of light.

410
00:30:41,880 --> 00:30:45,519
And then as the sun moves across
the sky, they'll sort of move across

411
00:30:45,519 --> 00:30:49,640
the lake to get the best sunlight
for their walk and their algae. Yeah,

412
00:30:49,839 --> 00:30:53,240
so it's pretty cool, and they, you know, will go up

413
00:30:53,359 --> 00:30:57,440
or down depending on how strong the
sun is that day. So if it's

414
00:30:57,440 --> 00:31:02,160
cloudy, they might go a little
bit high up. If it's really really

415
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,920
bright, they might go a little
deeper down to protect at algae from getting

416
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:11,240
like a sort of like an algae
sunburn essentially. And you know, it

417
00:31:11,279 --> 00:31:15,400
turns out that a lot of jellyfish
seem to do this, so even ocean

418
00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:25,839
jellyfish will exhibit this migratory behavior across
bays during the day, and some jellyfish

419
00:31:25,839 --> 00:31:30,279
also show really strong day night patterns. So there's a beautiful jellyfish called the

420
00:31:30,319 --> 00:31:36,240
cigar jellyfish, and it's named that
because it's nocturnal and during the day it

421
00:31:36,359 --> 00:31:40,839
rolls into a little taco that kind
of looks like a cigar as it's rolling

422
00:31:40,880 --> 00:31:45,680
around on the seafloor and will just
sort of rest for the day and then

423
00:31:45,359 --> 00:31:48,920
kind of get active at night and
swim around. Wow, oh my god,

424
00:31:49,279 --> 00:31:52,599
they're so cool. I could talk
to you forever about them. And

425
00:31:52,759 --> 00:31:57,160
like, I'm sure different species in
different places do so many different things and

426
00:31:57,240 --> 00:32:04,240
less opportunities. There are thousands of
species, so oh my gosh, yeah,

427
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,599
no, wonder you're so busy all
the time. It's fun. It's

428
00:32:07,640 --> 00:32:10,720
so fun, but it is it. It's and it's like hard to keep

429
00:32:10,759 --> 00:32:13,960
track, like, oh, wait, which one's doing who's doing that?

430
00:32:14,079 --> 00:32:16,000
Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, who's a cigar today? Yeah for

431
00:32:16,039 --> 00:32:22,400
sure? Right, yeah, so
I guess a similar question, patron Down

432
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:28,480
asked what is the difference between a
jellyfish and a Portuguese man a war and

433
00:32:28,559 --> 00:32:31,920
similarly, Angela asked, are there
other species that share similar characteristics to jellyfish

434
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,640
that are not jellyfish? I don't
know. What a Portuguese man of war

435
00:32:35,759 --> 00:32:38,759
is. So I have no idea
if that is even a jellyfish, but

436
00:32:39,039 --> 00:32:44,680
okay, yeah, well I'll start
big and zoom in. So jellies is

437
00:32:44,720 --> 00:32:49,400
what scientists call literally anything in the
ocean that has the texture of jello.

438
00:32:49,799 --> 00:32:54,519
Awesome, And so you can be
a fish and if you have that gelatinous

439
00:32:54,559 --> 00:33:00,119
texture, then you are a jelly. If you are another kind of invertebrates,

440
00:33:00,119 --> 00:33:04,240
say a worm, and you're really
gelatinous, then you're a jelly.

441
00:33:04,319 --> 00:33:08,200
So if we use the term jelly
like really broadly to refer to anything that's

442
00:33:08,279 --> 00:33:13,920
kind of goofy and jelloesque, and
there are lots of jellies. So comb

443
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:17,119
jellies is a great example. They
are not jellyfish. They are a totally

444
00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:22,039
separate kind of animal, but they
look a lot like jellyfish. They have

445
00:33:22,160 --> 00:33:27,279
that same gelatinous gooby body, and
they're a great example of something that's not

446
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:34,680
a jellyfish but has the jellyfish distalt
to it. Right gosh, I mean,

447
00:33:34,759 --> 00:33:39,160
even babyfish will often resemble jellyfish in
the open ocean. I think is

448
00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:46,319
probably some kind of strategy. And
so that's kind of the broader overarching thing

449
00:33:46,359 --> 00:33:52,599
of like what is a jellyfish?
In this case, when we say jelly

450
00:33:52,039 --> 00:33:58,759
fish, we're talking just about one
particular group of animals, anyone that looks

451
00:33:58,839 --> 00:34:02,920
like a little bell or a wineglass, right, that sort of typical jellyfish

452
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:09,519
shape is specific to jellyfish. Portuguese
man o war are jellies. They're certainly

453
00:34:09,599 --> 00:34:15,000
very goofy, certainly very stingy,
but they're actually more similar to polyps.

454
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:21,320
So they are like polyps that float
on the surface of the ocean, like

455
00:34:21,559 --> 00:34:28,480
really big blue, very very painful
polyps. Oh, and they have a

456
00:34:28,679 --> 00:34:31,599
jelly like part of their life cycle
that we really don't know anything about.

457
00:34:31,920 --> 00:34:39,440
So they're very unusual weirdos that aren't
technically jellyfish, but would we would call

458
00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:46,760
them jellies and they would be scientifically
considered like a kind of polyp. Okay,

459
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:51,920
wow, I feel like that raises
more questions than answers. That's so

460
00:34:52,039 --> 00:34:55,639
cool. Oh yeah, so Portuguese
man o war. They're in a group

461
00:34:55,639 --> 00:35:00,519
of animals called siphonophores. And man, if you want to get super confused,

462
00:35:00,639 --> 00:35:07,320
that is a rabbit hole to go
down, because even really simple questions

463
00:35:07,599 --> 00:35:15,119
like what is an individual, right, become really muddy. So it's a

464
00:35:15,360 --> 00:35:20,519
really cool group of animals, but
definitely like a whole other thing. Yeah,

465
00:35:20,599 --> 00:35:22,719
so you're saying the Portuguese man of
war is painful, So like do

466
00:35:22,840 --> 00:35:30,079
they sting people or hurt people in
some way? They every jelly, whether

467
00:35:30,119 --> 00:35:34,880
it's a jellyfish or a Portuguese man
o war, it's always like an accident.

468
00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:39,360
Nothing is trying to hurt people.
In most cases, of the thirty

469
00:35:39,400 --> 00:35:45,199
odd jellies that sting humans, they
all seem to have in common that they

470
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:51,119
eat fish, like their primary prey
is fish, and for all the rest

471
00:35:51,159 --> 00:35:55,760
of the thousands of jellies they're mostly
eating like little crabs or crustaceans. But

472
00:35:57,280 --> 00:36:02,719
fish and humans have a lot more
in common than humans and crustaceans. Yeah,

473
00:36:02,760 --> 00:36:07,119
and so the kinds of venom that
work on crustaceans, yeah, like

474
00:36:07,159 --> 00:36:10,199
they don't really work on us super
well. Right, That's why we can

475
00:36:10,280 --> 00:36:15,159
use insecticides in our garden and not
like immediately keel over and tye ourselves,

476
00:36:15,239 --> 00:36:20,599
right, because it's really different biology. But you know, we can't eat

477
00:36:20,639 --> 00:36:23,599
rat poison because that is really similar
to our biology. And likewise, if

478
00:36:23,639 --> 00:36:29,239
something poisons fish, it probably poisons
people, and so Portuguese man O war

479
00:36:29,440 --> 00:36:34,880
they have a horrible, super painful
sting, but it's always like an accidental

480
00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:37,880
encounter. It's definitely not something that
they ever, you know, intend to

481
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:46,079
use on like weird hairless land apes, right, And it really sucks for

482
00:36:46,199 --> 00:36:51,960
them too, Like we had jellyfish
in the lab and when they lost tentacles,

483
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:55,320
they would shrink like they would actually
starve because they fish with those things.

484
00:36:55,360 --> 00:36:59,360
That's their only way to catch food. And when they don't have them

485
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:04,360
anymore, it makes their lives really
uncomfortable too. So yeah, they're really

486
00:37:04,400 --> 00:37:07,719
really painful. But I try to
remember when I'm stung and it's like,

487
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,519
okay, it's not personal. Yeah, And I guess, I guess I

488
00:37:10,599 --> 00:37:15,000
don't understand the mechanism of them stinging
people. So is it like there's venom

489
00:37:15,039 --> 00:37:19,079
on the tentacles or they have to
like physically like inject you with something.

490
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,079
Is it just upon touching them.
It's kind of all of the above.

491
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:29,719
So they have specialized cells and within
those cells are little pockets of venom that

492
00:37:29,760 --> 00:37:36,559
they sort of keep in these special
cellular compartments. And each cellular compartment has

493
00:37:36,800 --> 00:37:40,679
a little needle associated with it that
can fire out to shoot the venom into

494
00:37:40,760 --> 00:37:45,400
your body when you brush against it. And they also have a little trigger

495
00:37:45,679 --> 00:37:50,360
or like a little you know,
lever on the top of the cell that

496
00:37:50,440 --> 00:37:55,679
will essentially release the harpoon needle and
the venom into your skin. So when

497
00:37:55,679 --> 00:38:00,320
you brush against them, if you
fire those little trigger, then the harpoon

498
00:38:00,360 --> 00:38:04,880
will shoot into you and it'll inject
all the venom that's in that little compartment

499
00:38:04,960 --> 00:38:08,800
into your skin. So okay,
yeah, geez. So would that,

500
00:38:09,199 --> 00:38:13,880
in your opinion, be like the
most common conflict that people tend to have

501
00:38:13,920 --> 00:38:17,920
with jellyfishes, Like jellyfish ven I'm
being injected into people and that's how people

502
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:22,719
in them don't mesh. Yeah,
mostly that. Yeah, I would say

503
00:38:22,719 --> 00:38:27,119
the vast majority of people who have
jellyfish stories to tell me are telling me

504
00:38:27,199 --> 00:38:32,480
stories about these, you know,
unfortunate confusions that they have with jellyfish.

505
00:38:32,559 --> 00:38:37,280
Right where they get stung by jellyfish. It really really hurts, and you

506
00:38:37,320 --> 00:38:43,119
know, it can be really a
bummer day at the beach. Yeah.

507
00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:47,639
Some jellies get huge and can create
issues for fissures that have big nets because

508
00:38:47,679 --> 00:38:52,400
they will weigh like as much as
a washing machine, and so trying to

509
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:55,719
pull you know, a hundred jellyfish
up that are the size and weight of

510
00:38:55,760 --> 00:39:00,719
a washing machine in your net can
tip over boats. That can be an

511
00:39:00,719 --> 00:39:05,360
issue. But that's definitely not something
that anyone has told me. You know,

512
00:39:05,639 --> 00:39:07,159
Like if I ever meet someone that
says, oh yeah, jellyfish,

513
00:39:07,280 --> 00:39:10,079
they really stink. They sunk my
boat, I'll be like, okay,

514
00:39:10,119 --> 00:39:14,960
what I say? More right now, help me everything? Yeah exactly.

515
00:39:15,920 --> 00:39:22,320
Wow, And I guess going off
that too, patron Shanda ask do all

516
00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:30,599
jellyfish sting? All jellyfish stings something, but only a handful sting people,

517
00:39:30,119 --> 00:39:35,199
like maybe a couple dozen? Oh
wow, okay, yeah, So all

518
00:39:35,280 --> 00:39:42,320
jellyfish use this kind of like harpoon
sell to catch their food, but most

519
00:39:42,320 --> 00:39:45,760
of the harpoons that they use don't
work on us. So for most species,

520
00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:49,039
they have harpoons that are designed to
eat like little shrimp for example,

521
00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,920
and those just don't penetrate the human
skin, so or they might not even

522
00:39:53,039 --> 00:39:58,039
be triggered by human skin, right, the trigger might not even work when

523
00:39:58,039 --> 00:40:00,440
it touches our skin. So it's
just the ones that really seem to like

524
00:40:00,599 --> 00:40:07,039
fish that create some problems of mistaken
identity for us. Yeah, and the

525
00:40:07,159 --> 00:40:09,760
jellyfish that could sting us in a
way that we would like feel it and

526
00:40:10,039 --> 00:40:14,639
be sad about it. Is it
ever enough to kill a person or is

527
00:40:14,679 --> 00:40:19,239
it just leave you like kind of
a burn situation. Well, yeah,

528
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:22,960
there are a couple species where it
can be deadly and they mostly live in

529
00:40:23,079 --> 00:40:30,039
Australia and of course, of course
also you know, Philippines, Indonesia.

530
00:40:30,960 --> 00:40:38,000
It's not uncommon for certain species of
box jellyfish to be oh really dangerous and

531
00:40:38,159 --> 00:40:44,519
there are lots of box jellyfish and
only a small number are are life threatening.

532
00:40:45,079 --> 00:40:47,119
But yeah, if you get stuck
by one of those, you definitely

533
00:40:47,159 --> 00:40:52,519
need medical attention immediately. It's kind
of a volume thing though, you know,

534
00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:57,760
certainly anyone can die from exposure to
anything. And there are people that

535
00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,519
are allergic to jellyfish, and there
are a lot of people that allergic to

536
00:41:00,559 --> 00:41:04,559
jellyfish that don't know they're allergic to
jellyfish. So if you're allergic, it

537
00:41:04,599 --> 00:41:07,639
doesn't really matter how much you get
stung, because you're gonna have an allergic

538
00:41:07,679 --> 00:41:12,599
reaction and it's probably gonna be pretty
rough. If you're not allergic to jellyfish

539
00:41:13,039 --> 00:41:15,480
and you get stung by one of
these really dangerous ones, you have to

540
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:20,679
be stung a lot. It depends
on the species. So for Portuguese man

541
00:41:20,719 --> 00:41:24,320
o war, I mean very small
humans who get stung by very big Portuguese

542
00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:30,039
man o war that can actually be
really dangerous for box jellyfish. Even if

543
00:41:30,079 --> 00:41:34,280
you are a big human and you
get stung by a box jellyfish, that

544
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:38,079
can be very dangerous. Generally,
anytime anyone is stung by a jellyfish,

545
00:41:38,159 --> 00:41:42,960
I'm like, go to the lifeguard, you know, because the lifeguard knows

546
00:41:43,480 --> 00:41:47,519
what's out there. They know you
know how to treat the local jellyfish.

547
00:41:47,559 --> 00:41:51,400
And if there's no lifeguard, I
would say, yeah, call a doctor.

548
00:41:52,400 --> 00:41:54,360
I'm not a medical professional, so
I'm not given medical advice, but

549
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:58,519
you know me personally, that's what
I do. Yeah, for sure.

550
00:41:58,639 --> 00:42:01,920
And this might be like a really
basic question and the answer might just be

551
00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:05,639
like swim away, But like,
if you're in the ocean, how can

552
00:42:05,679 --> 00:42:10,400
you avoid being stung by a jellyfish? So I can only answer for what

553
00:42:10,599 --> 00:42:20,639
I've done, which has mixed success. So some jellyfish are real ough,

554
00:42:21,559 --> 00:42:25,039
real pains in the butt when it
comes to they'll just sting you instantly,

555
00:42:25,599 --> 00:42:30,320
like you look at them wrong and
they'll sting you so upside down jellyfish in

556
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:35,800
the Florida Keys, you don't even
need to touch them, and they'll release

557
00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:39,320
these bombs of snot that have stinging
cells in them, and suddenly, like

558
00:42:39,440 --> 00:42:45,199
all the water around you will become
stingy like you just them yeah, slightly

559
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:47,880
mad, So they would be like
the ultimate grumpy jellyfish. Like, I

560
00:42:47,920 --> 00:42:52,039
don't even swim in the water with
those guys. If there's any any rough

561
00:42:52,079 --> 00:42:55,519
water at all, or if I'm
gonna be doing like any kicking super herd

562
00:42:55,599 --> 00:42:59,519
or anything, I'm like, no
way, those guys are super super mean.

563
00:43:00,000 --> 00:43:05,000
But then other jellyfish, you know, as long as you like don't

564
00:43:05,119 --> 00:43:07,880
touch them, yeah they're okay.
Now. The strick, of course,

565
00:43:07,960 --> 00:43:12,000
is that their tentacles are like the
width of a human hair, so you

566
00:43:12,039 --> 00:43:15,880
can't always see when you're about to
run into this whole massive tentacles. But

567
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:22,199
generally I just try to steer it
clear, kind of figure out the direction

568
00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:25,159
that the water flow is moving in, you know, because usually they swim

569
00:43:25,280 --> 00:43:30,440
against the current, so they'll be
swimming kind of into the flow of water,

570
00:43:30,639 --> 00:43:34,800
and I assume all of the all
of the stingy bits are behind them.

571
00:43:35,039 --> 00:43:38,000
But gotcha, Okay, there's rarely
one jellyfish, you know, so

572
00:43:38,039 --> 00:43:42,519
I may be swimming up stream of
one and downstream of another. So yeah,

573
00:43:42,559 --> 00:43:44,960
you just kind of have to keep
your eyes peeled and be ready to

574
00:43:44,960 --> 00:43:49,599
bail if you start getting stuck.
Yeah, and I'm assuming this is a

575
00:43:49,639 --> 00:43:53,320
myth, but I have to ask
we should not pee on jellyfish stings,

576
00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:58,480
right, You must get asked this
all the time. Well, like most

577
00:43:58,679 --> 00:44:02,199
really successful pervasive urban legends, there's
like a kernel of truth to it.

578
00:44:02,360 --> 00:44:07,400
So no, I don't pee on
jellyfish stings. There are a lot of

579
00:44:07,400 --> 00:44:13,079
reasons why you don't want to add
urine to any wound, but the part

580
00:44:13,159 --> 00:44:16,280
that seems to be more true than
not is that heat can really help treat

581
00:44:16,519 --> 00:44:22,440
jellyfish stings, and pee coming out
of people is like ninety eight degrees,

582
00:44:22,519 --> 00:44:27,559
so it's on the warm side and
that can potentially sue the sting a little

583
00:44:27,559 --> 00:44:32,320
bit. But I do not recommend
peeing. Instead, you can get like

584
00:44:32,440 --> 00:44:37,719
hot packs that they use in really
cold states in the winter. They're like

585
00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:42,079
these little chemical packs and you expose
them to air and they start to warm

586
00:44:42,159 --> 00:44:44,880
up. You can shove them in
your boots and mittens when it's really chilly

587
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:49,199
outside, but I always keep them
in my sort of jellyfish emergency kit.

588
00:44:50,599 --> 00:44:53,599
And my procedure is, okay,
i've gotten stum. First, I have

589
00:44:53,639 --> 00:44:59,360
to make sure there's no tentacle left
on me, because it'll continue stinging long

590
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:01,440
after it's dead. I mean,
they can sting for a very long time.

591
00:45:01,559 --> 00:45:07,119
So remove any tentacle, either with
some sand, just kind of brushing

592
00:45:07,119 --> 00:45:09,760
it off with sand, or you
can use like a really hard surface like

593
00:45:09,800 --> 00:45:15,440
a credit card to scrape off any
tentacle. And then I'll usually also scrape

594
00:45:15,480 --> 00:45:19,639
off the area once the tentacle has
been removed, because those stinging cells can

595
00:45:19,679 --> 00:45:24,719
still be attached. And then there
are a variety of products that you can

596
00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:30,159
apply. Sting No More is a
great one that you can apply that'll help

597
00:45:30,239 --> 00:45:35,320
neutralize the venom and destroy the cells
on your skin. Vinegar can also break

598
00:45:35,400 --> 00:45:38,679
up those cells, Meat tenderizer can
break up those cells. But there's already

599
00:45:38,719 --> 00:45:44,039
a lot of venom inside you,
and in order to kind of stop the

600
00:45:44,159 --> 00:45:49,360
venom that's in your body from continuing
to break down your cells and hurt you,

601
00:45:50,199 --> 00:45:53,360
heat can be used to denature the
venom. It's essentially like cooking it.

602
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:57,519
So you don't want anything too hot, you don't want to burn yourself.

603
00:45:57,920 --> 00:46:00,920
But if you add enough heat,
like a like a warm bath,

604
00:46:00,199 --> 00:46:04,880
like just on the edge of maybe
being a little too hot but comfortable,

605
00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:09,480
you know, add heat that'll essentially
cook the venom in your body. Jellyfish,

606
00:46:09,519 --> 00:46:14,519
of course, are at a much
colder temperature than we are, so

607
00:46:14,920 --> 00:46:17,239
the venom can be cooked in a
much lower temperature and that will really help.

608
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:21,400
So kind of a combination of all
of those things is a pretty good

609
00:46:21,440 --> 00:46:24,599
heat treatment, and then are a
pretty good general treatment. And then if

610
00:46:24,599 --> 00:46:30,000
you have anything like neosporin or any
other kind of antibiotic, I generally try

611
00:46:30,039 --> 00:46:37,079
to apply that because your skin has
been broken by those harpoons and other things

612
00:46:37,159 --> 00:46:40,679
like bacteria in the ocean, and
there are lots of bacteria in the ocean

613
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:45,519
can get in and give you like
a secondary infection. Oh perfect, great,

614
00:46:45,679 --> 00:46:51,719
Now, I know I have so
many questions. But okay, patron

615
00:46:51,840 --> 00:46:54,559
down asked, is there any safe
way to put them back in the water

616
00:46:54,599 --> 00:46:59,360
when they're stranded? So obviously we
just learned do not touch them, but

617
00:46:59,440 --> 00:47:02,440
is there anything do to help them
if they're struggling. That's very sweet and

618
00:47:02,559 --> 00:47:07,920
thoughtful, and I always try.
Usually by the time they've washed ashore,

619
00:47:08,119 --> 00:47:13,679
they're like kind of at the end
of their most bad day, right,

620
00:47:14,800 --> 00:47:17,679
Jellies don't do too well out of
the water for too long. But if

621
00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:22,599
you want to try to put them
back, I would first make sure that

622
00:47:22,679 --> 00:47:25,480
any jelly that you're thinking about putting
back into the water isn't like the jelly

623
00:47:25,519 --> 00:47:30,239
that can kill you. And also
definitely I don't recommend you know, getting

624
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:35,679
close with your hands, but I
will have like a little shovel, like

625
00:47:35,760 --> 00:47:38,039
one of those little toy shovels that
you can use to make saying castles,

626
00:47:38,039 --> 00:47:42,559
and I'll just kind of like flip
them back right, So you just kind

627
00:47:42,559 --> 00:47:45,960
of get a little leverage by going
underneath them in the sand and then you

628
00:47:45,039 --> 00:47:50,519
just kind of like bop them.
You know. Yeah, if they're freshly

629
00:47:50,639 --> 00:47:53,480
washed up, that actually might save
them. Usually by the time you see

630
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:57,800
them, they're kind of donzo.
Yeah, like even if you pop them

631
00:47:57,840 --> 00:48:01,320
back out, they're just gonna restrand. But you know, if they're newly

632
00:48:01,360 --> 00:48:06,280
stranded, uh, and you want
to help them and safe to do so,

633
00:48:06,639 --> 00:48:07,960
yeah, you can use a little
shovel to kind of pop up back.

634
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:15,599
So, like I mentioned the intro, doctor Helm was on an episode

635
00:48:15,599 --> 00:48:19,679
of Ologies, and in that episode
she mentioned something that we didn't get to

636
00:48:19,679 --> 00:48:22,119
talk about in our interview but I
thought was really interesting and would probably apply

637
00:48:22,360 --> 00:48:24,559
to the most amount of people.
Tim me with it. And I don't

638
00:48:24,559 --> 00:48:29,440
think you know this either, probably
not. I don't know a lot facts.

639
00:48:29,760 --> 00:48:34,719
She said that sometimes when you get
swimmers itch, what's making you itch

640
00:48:35,039 --> 00:48:37,519
is a bunch of baby jellyfish trapped
between your swim suit and your skin.

641
00:48:38,039 --> 00:48:42,920
No shit, yeah, oh let's
go so cool. I didn't know that.

642
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:45,840
I know it's so cool but also
so horrifying because you've got like a

643
00:48:45,840 --> 00:48:49,679
bunch of baby jellies being smushed against
your body. I really like jellyfish,

644
00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:52,239
Like I want to go swimming with
jellyfish one day. Like I know they

645
00:48:52,280 --> 00:48:54,159
have like all those like ponds and
stuff where it's like filled with the big,

646
00:48:54,199 --> 00:48:58,679
beautiful, like classic looking jellyfish.
I would love to go do that

647
00:48:58,719 --> 00:49:00,360
one day. I think they're great. I love them. I think they're

648
00:49:00,360 --> 00:49:06,199
beautiful, cool animals. Cool.
Yeah, well, next time you get

649
00:49:06,199 --> 00:49:08,920
swimmers, you're swimming with them.
Yes, you can't wait. Yes,

650
00:49:08,960 --> 00:49:14,400
they found me. Nick. What
was the thing that you learned that you

651
00:49:14,519 --> 00:49:16,760
liked the most? Oh, I
liked the most. I didn't realize how

652
00:49:17,119 --> 00:49:22,079
like diverse they were, Like so
the jellies being like a group of animals

653
00:49:22,119 --> 00:49:25,039
and not just jellyfish, Like I
didn't know that there were other types of

654
00:49:25,039 --> 00:49:29,360
fish that were kind of like jelly
masses like that. I assume they were

655
00:49:29,360 --> 00:49:32,400
all jellyfish. Portuguese man of war. I had no idea what jellyfish.

656
00:49:32,400 --> 00:49:36,199
Always assumed they were. I didn't
even know what those were. Oh my

657
00:49:36,239 --> 00:49:38,840
god. There's so there's crazy stories
like so there's a guy who was trying

658
00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:44,079
to swim across the Atlantic Ocean,
I think one day or at one point

659
00:49:44,199 --> 00:49:45,679
he was Yeah, he was trying
to swim across the Stantic Ocean and he

660
00:49:45,840 --> 00:49:52,239
swam through like a twenty foot long
Portuguese man of war and started going to

661
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:54,480
shock and the middle of the ocean. Wow. Yeah, no, yeah,

662
00:49:54,519 --> 00:49:57,960
no, they are a problem.
Like there's a lot of stories like

663
00:49:58,000 --> 00:50:01,519
that. I like, extreme athletes
doing these swims across the English Channel or

664
00:50:01,559 --> 00:50:05,920
like across the Atlantic Ocean and they
get pretty fucked up. Yeah. Wow,

665
00:50:05,920 --> 00:50:09,440
they're they're scary jelly fisher literally fucking
everywhere. I didn't know that the

666
00:50:09,440 --> 00:50:14,000
freshwater ones came from China, some
of them, some of them. Yeah,

667
00:50:14,039 --> 00:50:16,280
but just like what the hell,
Like this is nuts. Yeah,

668
00:50:17,079 --> 00:50:21,159
I like them, I know.
And if you listen to the Ologies episode,

669
00:50:21,280 --> 00:50:23,400
some of the things I learned there, I was so shocked. And

670
00:50:23,519 --> 00:50:27,760
the fact that they could reproduce by
just like, oh, yeah, that's

671
00:50:27,800 --> 00:50:30,719
it. So we just had like
our cloning and the Extinction Plonus episode.

672
00:50:30,880 --> 00:50:36,639
Would that be like a form of
cloning as much as asexual reproduction is?

673
00:50:36,719 --> 00:50:42,280
Yeah, I guess yeah, abusing
the same organism, right, Yeah,

674
00:50:43,000 --> 00:50:45,599
yeah, I don't know. It
is wild. So, like we talked

675
00:50:45,599 --> 00:50:51,079
about a little bit in the interview
box, jellyfish are the most dangerous jellyfish

676
00:50:51,199 --> 00:50:53,559
that we should be worried about.
Yeah, And just so we can all

677
00:50:53,559 --> 00:51:00,119
get a better perspective on how dangerous
they are. If the total estimated length

678
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:04,880
of the welts on your body is
over seven hundred millimeters, you will quickly

679
00:51:04,920 --> 00:51:09,559
fall unconscious, culminating in a death
between fifteen to twenty minutes after you've been

680
00:51:09,559 --> 00:51:14,679
stung. Wow, Like it is
fast. If it is that long.

681
00:51:15,199 --> 00:51:20,960
So the Australian box jellyfish has been
responsible for over seventy fatal stings or envenomings

682
00:51:21,039 --> 00:51:23,039
since eighteen eighty three. I love
that word. We're gonna use it more

683
00:51:23,079 --> 00:51:27,519
often. So they are the most
deadly bye by far ever soon of the

684
00:51:27,599 --> 00:51:30,239
jellyfish. Yeah yeah, well it's
also the most toxic venom in the world.

685
00:51:30,639 --> 00:51:35,639
Oh yeah, no, it's it's
insane. So cube zoans, which

686
00:51:35,679 --> 00:51:39,199
is what the box jellyfish are,
include several species of four tentacled box jellyfish

687
00:51:39,239 --> 00:51:45,039
that can also cause I'm probably gonna
butcher this pronunciation, but Eruganji syndrome,

688
00:51:45,599 --> 00:51:50,960
which is characterized it's literally a syndrome
from being stung by a jellyfish. It's

689
00:51:51,039 --> 00:51:57,039
characterized by severe pain, muscle cramping, hypertension, and potentially life threatening cardiac

690
00:51:57,119 --> 00:52:04,320
complications. Oh man, Yeah,
and what I gleamed from reading about what

691
00:52:04,440 --> 00:52:10,800
another jellyfish biologist said, the jellyfish
venom stops your heart. So doing CPR

692
00:52:12,000 --> 00:52:14,000
like isn't really helpful. And that's
why, like at the beginning of the

693
00:52:14,000 --> 00:52:15,280
episode, I was saying, you
know, shoot, that jellyfish biologist was

694
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:21,239
talking about prevention, because when it
does sting you. There's really nothing or

695
00:52:21,320 --> 00:52:23,760
not a lot that can be done
to help your heart because it's just like

696
00:52:24,039 --> 00:52:29,360
nothing's coming in or going out.
Now, apply heat the biggest thing,

697
00:52:29,679 --> 00:52:32,639
like just just to get the venom
out of you. Yeah. According to

698
00:52:34,079 --> 00:52:38,599
dermnetenz dot org, which is like
a government website, box jellyfish are most

699
00:52:38,599 --> 00:52:44,079
commonly present in tropical Australian waters from
November to April each year, with eight

700
00:52:44,119 --> 00:52:50,119
percent of stings occurring outside this period, so a huge vast majority occurs within

701
00:52:50,199 --> 00:52:54,119
these few months. Yeah. Stings
most commonly occur in adult men in water

702
00:52:54,280 --> 00:53:00,320
less than one hundred millimeters deep,
and about thirty seven percent of US aralion

703
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:05,920
box jellyfish stings occur in children.
Stings most often occurrent people entering the water

704
00:53:05,960 --> 00:53:10,400
between three and six pm with an
outbound tide and rain and strong winds but

705
00:53:10,639 --> 00:53:15,800
not cloudy weather are a deterrent to
the jellyfish. Interesting, Yeah, which

706
00:53:15,840 --> 00:53:19,760
we kind of talk about in the
interview, like, you know, they

707
00:53:19,760 --> 00:53:22,719
can only control their e motions so
much. So, Yeah, the ocean

708
00:53:22,760 --> 00:53:23,440
currents have so much to do with
it. Like, I'm sure though,

709
00:53:23,559 --> 00:53:28,039
those months when the attacks are highest
is probably when the ocean currents are bringing

710
00:53:28,079 --> 00:53:30,800
them closest to the shore. Yeah, or they're like doing some sort of

711
00:53:30,800 --> 00:53:34,960
migrations or something. I don't know. Yeah, I mean whatever they can

712
00:53:35,039 --> 00:53:37,199
do, it's you know, yea
with their limited movement. Very true.

713
00:53:37,800 --> 00:53:43,440
Yeah. So something I also wanted
to mention is because you were saying,

714
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:45,920
like you're all jazzed up about jellyfish. So if you are someone who wants

715
00:53:46,000 --> 00:53:51,440
to contribute to jellyfish science, you
can do so at jellywatch dot org,

716
00:53:51,880 --> 00:53:54,440
which I will linkit the episode description, or I'm naturalist dot com, which

717
00:53:54,480 --> 00:54:00,000
are two community science sites where your
observations of certain jellyfish species can help science.

718
00:54:00,119 --> 00:54:02,440
Is like doctor Rebecca Helm in their
research. I have I Naturalists on

719
00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:06,519
my phone and I you said fairly
often like I like it me too,

720
00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,000
Yeah, even just like at the
seek app. Right is it the seak

721
00:54:09,039 --> 00:54:12,639
app? I have no idea.
Yeah, I think it's seeked by I

722
00:54:12,760 --> 00:54:14,960
naturalists. Like you take a picture
of something and it kind of tells you,

723
00:54:15,000 --> 00:54:15,880
like the species, and everything gives
you a bunch of info. Want.

724
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:19,239
Oh yeah you told me about that
app. Yeah it's really cool.

725
00:54:19,280 --> 00:54:22,199
Yeah, I like it. Yeah, So I use I naturalists like as

726
00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:23,880
a way to remember where I've seen
certain species, so if I want to

727
00:54:23,920 --> 00:54:29,679
go find them again. But I've
also had like actual biologists reach out to

728
00:54:29,679 --> 00:54:32,119
me through I naturalists and be like, hey, can I use your observation

729
00:54:32,199 --> 00:54:35,679
as like a point in my data
set or whatever? Really like it?

730
00:54:35,800 --> 00:54:38,159
Yeah, so it really like it's
actually helpful to scientists. So if you

731
00:54:38,199 --> 00:54:43,280
want to contribute and also like learn
more about jellyfish and how to identify them,

732
00:54:43,320 --> 00:54:45,920
those are two good ways. Awesome, Yeah, that sounds really cool,

733
00:54:45,480 --> 00:54:51,400
And you can find Rebecca at jellyfish
biologists dot com or follow her on

734
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,519
what's formally known as Twitter at Rebecca
our Helm and of course I will link

735
00:54:54,559 --> 00:55:00,239
those in the episode description. Perfect
Nick, anything else about jellies you want

736
00:55:00,239 --> 00:55:04,199
to touch on, Uh? Yeah, I mean she mentioned that not all

737
00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:07,760
of them are super deadly when they
sting, but she did mention that people

738
00:55:07,760 --> 00:55:08,840
can be allergic and don't know about
it. So if you think you've been

739
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:13,320
stung by jellyfish and you are knowledgeable
enough to know what kind it is,

740
00:55:13,400 --> 00:55:15,800
you know it's not a box livefish, still get out of the water immediately,

741
00:55:15,840 --> 00:55:20,239
go swim towards a boat, towards
sure anything as soon as you can,

742
00:55:20,280 --> 00:55:22,480
because you could go into some kind
of shock very quickly from the allergic

743
00:55:22,519 --> 00:55:25,840
reaction. So take care of yourself. Let someone know that you got stung.

744
00:55:27,159 --> 00:55:29,920
Go talk to a left guard or
captain of a boat or something,

745
00:55:29,960 --> 00:55:31,480
someone that actually knows what they're doing. Don't just pee on it. Yeah,

746
00:55:31,480 --> 00:55:35,400
I mean put some heats on it. Maybe not pee, but heat

747
00:55:35,599 --> 00:55:39,239
if possible. Perfect. Well,
thank you all so much for listening to

748
00:55:39,320 --> 00:55:44,039
episode sixty one of Get It Alive. You can check out the episode description

749
00:55:44,119 --> 00:55:46,519
for links that I talked about in
this episode, and you can check out

750
00:55:46,559 --> 00:55:51,239
our website get alli podcast dot com, where you can find our merch and

751
00:55:51,320 --> 00:55:55,159
other fun stuff. Thank you to
everyone who's ordered orc Emerch. We appreciate

752
00:55:55,199 --> 00:55:59,360
it so much, and also I
know it's so good. I love it.

753
00:56:00,440 --> 00:56:02,599
Follow us on Facebook at get a
Live Podcast, on Instagram at get

754
00:56:02,639 --> 00:56:07,679
it a Live pod, on TikTok
at get out Alive. Most of TikTok

755
00:56:07,719 --> 00:56:10,079
right now is me yelling about books, but I swear I repost animal related

756
00:56:10,159 --> 00:56:15,480
things, and you can follow me
on what is formally known on Twitter at

757
00:56:15,519 --> 00:56:20,639
the Angry Ologist. And because I'm
not going to ask you what social media

758
00:56:20,639 --> 00:56:22,280
you have because you won't tell me
let us know if you want us on

759
00:56:22,320 --> 00:56:25,679
YouTube. We're thinking about it.
I don't know what we do, yeah,

760
00:56:25,760 --> 00:56:29,960
I mean we just be posing clips
and you know, probably you know,

761
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:34,039
the full interviews if we ever get
the full video thing going, you

762
00:56:34,039 --> 00:56:37,599
know. Yeah, we do have
a bonus video interview that's gonna go live

763
00:56:37,760 --> 00:56:42,599
next month, so I can't wait
for that. That's good. Or wait,

764
00:56:42,800 --> 00:56:45,880
no, the month that this comes
out September. So wow, that'll

765
00:56:45,880 --> 00:56:50,400
be out September. In the future, Yeah, hopeful it comes out.

766
00:56:50,719 --> 00:56:54,559
Oh wow, time flies. Yeah. Thank you to my good friend and

767
00:56:54,559 --> 00:56:59,480
second grade husband, Josh Walls from
making our intro music, and thank you

768
00:56:59,559 --> 00:57:05,360
to our our producer, Jesse Walsh
for everything else. Thanks Jesse. Peace.