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Created with Fabric.js 1.4.5 White Spotted Jelly Fish Phyllorhiza punctata Native To: Australia and the Philippines Means of Introduction: Probably entered from the Pacific Ocean through the Panama Canal on the hulls of ships Date of U.S. Introduction: First discovered in 1981 in California Current U.S. Distribution: Southeastern U.S. coastal region "We absolutely depend on the public's reporting the appearance of these creatures. We don't have the resources to survey the waters continuously, and by tracking their numbers and locations, we can try to get a handle on why they're here in such concentrations and what impact they have on the ecosystem," he concludes.-Dr. Monty Graham The White-spotted Jellyfish is easily recognized by the large, semi-transparent, rounded bell covered in regularly spaced, white dots. The trailing tentacles also end in whitened spots. - In the Pacific region, there are snails that eat the budding polyp stage of the jellyfish but in the North American waters these snails are not present to keep the jellyfish populations lower. Besides knowing that low salinity causes Phyllorhiza punctata to lose it symbiotic algae, there isn’t much known on how to manage jellyfish populations; especially since they are found in wide open ocean areas. Capture and not killing any jellyfish caught can help lower the population, but there could be millions of them in one area and fishermen can only devote so much time to an animal that generates no revenue for them. Vigilant eyes on ocean waters and continual reports of Australian Spotted Jellyfish sighting can help estimate how many are within the Gulf of Mexico and further measures can be taken. What can we do? Identification: The White-spotted Jellyfish is causing a problem overseas, particularly in the Caribbean region. It mayhave hitched a ride in ships' ballast tanks, travelling from Australia and the Pacific region to the Caribbean. Here, it found an ideal place to breed, free of their natural predators (various Pacific-region snails). Impacts:
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