Kategorie: News
Thailand is turning a growing problem into an export commodity
Jellyfish blooms are becoming more common worldwide, from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean and off the coast of Namibia. Warmer, increasingly oxygen-depleted water favors these hardy creatures, while many of their natural competitors and predators suffer under the same conditions.
Another advantage: Artificial structures such as port facilities, docks, or shipwrecks provide ideal settlement areas for the sessile polyp stages of many jellyfish species - areas that would not exist in this form in pristine coastal regions.
An Industry with a Long History
In Thailand, people have long been accustomed to this phenomenon; edible jellyfish species have been caught and processed there for decades. In Samut Songkhram Province, Wanlee Muensawat runs the Chockdee Sea Products factory, which processes about 1,000 metric tons of jellyfish annually from the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea, primarily the sand jellyfish and white jellyfish species.
About 20 years ago, Muensawat herself still had doubts about whether her business would be viable; today, she anticipates further market growth. Traditional processing is labor-intensive: After being caught, the jellyfish are marinated in salt and alum and dried for about two weeks before they are ready for export.
Jellyfish have long been a common food in parts of Asia; in China, they are traditionally served as a cold salad, and they are also a staple in Japan and South Korea. Their nutritional value is unspectacular but straightforward: low in fat and calories, rich in collagen, yet rather neutral in flavor, which makes them versatile.
From Crustacean Forecasting to Crackers
Because jellyfish blooms are notoriously difficult to predict - which complicates fishing - biologist Maslin Osathanunkul of Chiang Mai University is working on an unusual solution: Using environmental DNA - that is, genetic traces in the water - it should be possible in the future to estimate early on when and where larger jellyfish blooms are likely to occur, so that fishermen can respond more effectively.
At the same time, researchers at Burapha University in Chon Buri, Thailand, are developing new, ready-to-eat jellyfish snack products, and a team has already launched SupperSea, a crispy jellyfish snack, on the Thai and Japanese markets.
Chockdee Sea Products itself is also experimenting: Muensawat is now even testing the cannonball jellyfish - which is not actually native to Thai waters - as a potential new product.
Whether these gelatinous creatures will actually evolve from an unwelcome side effect of ocean warming into a serious food source of the future remains to be seen. One thing is certain: the amount of “jellyfish raw material” is more likely to increase than decrease in the coming years.
More information:
National Geographic (Original, EN)
National Geographic Germany
Frontiers in Nutrition – Jellyfish cracker development