Jams & Jellies Jellies, Sweets and Sips. Jellyfish blooms are substantial growths in population of species under the phyla Cnidaria (including several types of jellyfish) and Ctenophora (comb jellies). When most Marylanders think of jellyfish, they picture Bay beaches surrounded by globes of milky-white — and stinging — sea nettles. “The conditions are right to have a large population,” said Maggie Sexton of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. Habitat: Found throughout brackish and salty waters, including shallow waters, open waters and tidal rivers UD professor and alum discover sea nettle jellyfish found in Rehoboth and Chesapeake Bay is actually two species University of Delaware professor Patrick Gaffney and alumnus Keith Bayha, a research associate with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, have determined that a common sea nettle jellyfish is actually two distinct species. We'll find our way back, it's a promise! Chances are, if you've been stung by a jellyfish in the Chesapeake Bay, it was by a sea nettle jellyfish. Photo: Will Parson/ Chesapeake Bay Program In one of the wettest summers on record, as boaters dodge floating debris sent down from the Conowingo Dam, jellyfish have been few and far between. A jellyfish on the beach at 49th street in Virginia Beach, Virginia early in the morning July 27, 2020. On the other side of the fray swims Chrysaora quinquecirrha , better known by the name “sea nettle,” the most common summer jellyfish in the Chesapeake. Sea nettles aren’t the only jellyfish in the bay. Get an up-close look at the delicate sea nettles in our Open Sea exhibit Watch our sea nettles as their long tentacles and lacey mouth-arms move smoothly through the water. They're often found washed ashore, according to … And, sea nettles help protect baby oysters by eating comb Note the white color and absence of red markings typical of sea nettles from lower Chesapeake Bay.Comb Jelly These barrel-shaped jellyfish ({em}Mnemiopsis leidyi{/em}) have a transparent body with four rows of ciliated “combs” that emit an iridescent glow when disturbed. Jellyfish use their stinging cells to capture their food which consist of copepods, minnows, bay anchovy eggs, worms and comb jellyfish. Ctenophores like comb jellies are important food sources for jellyfish that one is liable to en-counter in the Chesapeake Bay. Sea nettles — also known as jellyfish — are in the Chesapeake Bay year-round.They encase themselves by rolling up in a ball and then lay dormant on the bottom of the bay … Stone says that modelers in the Chesapeake Bay Program are also interested in how carbon moves in the Bay because, currently, no one knows how much carbon sinks to the bottom. 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