Initially introduced as aquatic decorations for aquariums, white-spotted jellyfish (Phyllorhiza punctata) have since found a niche in heavily disturbed ocean sites. In the wake of ocean pollution in heavily disturbed sites, white spotted jellyfish thrive where nobody else can or is willing to live. They proliferate in degraded conditions, in toxic areas with extremely low oxygen levels, in warming waters hostile to other forms of survival. Recent studies suggest collaborating with jellyfish to mitigate microplastic pollution, as they can sequester polystyrene particles and clean nanoparticles of metal, just 15 nanometres wide, through mucus, a feat industrial filters cannot match. Jellyfish bodies are also known to be dispersers. After oil spills, they act as tiny mixers, diluting polluted water and mixing dispersants with the oil slicks. As well, stressed jellyfish release nutrients that can boost the digestion of oil-eating bacteria. Viewed this way, white spotted jellyfish, although labelled as an invasive species, transcend the good and evil binary to become healers. GoJelly , funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 Innovation and Research Program, is developing a microplastics filter made of jellyfish mucus: a gelatinous solution called TRL 5-6. GoJelly ’s main goal is to create off-season jobs for commercial fishers by harvesting jellyfish, while supporting the fishing economy by turning unwanted jellyfish into valuable resources, reframing invasive vilification through the development of marketable water filters, scaleable commodities and edible products. Jellyfish have been eaten in China for over 1,700 years, valued as a low-calorie, high-protein food. Turning a problem species into something useful is a way of meeting trouble.
foto@zoo.basel Phyllorhiza punctata is native to the western Pacific from Australia to Japan. It is thought that it was carried in ships’ ballast tanks which are routinely dumped. This is the aquatic version of the transported insects in the root ball.
ghost residents in the residue As key players in intensifying transcontinental species migrations in the Anthropocene (or Plantationocene, whichever you prefer), how do we grapple with the fact that new species introductions are going to increasingly be around us? Although bioregions have always embodied fluidity, this transcontinental exchange has grown significantly with the global network of cargo commercial trade. In The Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet , Anna Tsing asks: What kinds of human disturbance can life on earth bear? As ghost residents of the anthropocene, white spotted Phyllorhiza punctata queer and derail the status quo of profit-driven conventional aquaculture. As liminal ghosts in the residues left behind, jellyfish, microplastics and nuclear plant entanglements generate fears of disaster, biological invasion, economic loss and destabilisation. Attracted to warmer waters, white spotted jellyfish come close to the shore. ‘Will they really become the fire ants of the ocean?’ asks a marine scientist studying the Louisiana coast. The landscape is a vessel of queer imagination or possibility. What do we make of the vast landscapes in which these micro-organisms, critters and rhizomatic networks are so intrinsically embedded? It is the bed in which cohabitation and kinship with other forms of life — strangers and neighbours — is formed? We are working with other elements here. Speaking of hybridisation and the blurring between human and other sentient subjectivities, bodies that sense, feel and listen are brought to the forefront, illuminated, celebrated. *
ALISHA KAPOOR is a researcher and sometimes an architectural designer. She visits archives and makes computational textiles. Her work traces lived histories and sites of counter-memories, and other things outside of frame. DIANA GUO is a designer and researcher pursuing a PhD at Columbia University. She writes on landscape histories, climate commons, and eco-criticism.
58 on site review 48 :: building materials
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