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Keeping them in good conditions is a full-time job as they have to be kept in specific water’s temperatures and fed with shrimp and plankton.
“It’s not like we’re just putting them in an aquarium without taking care of them. If our jellyfish feel bad, we catch them and put them in another tank alone and if they regenerate and start to feel good we’re returning them. It’s not like if they’re ill we trough them out,” tour-guide Rodion Pediuk said.
Jellyfish are among the oldest creatures in the world. In fact, some scientists believe they lived before the dinosaurs. They are used in traditional medicine, mainly in Asia. Others are also edible – sometimes eaten in salads for example. While jellyfish are fascinating and beautiful to observe but can be very dangerous as well.
“Yeah, they are very dangerous because like one species called “Sea Wasp” it can kill a human in five minutes. We don’t have it because it’s really hard to keep them out. We have Cinnatoes, they are pretty dangerous but if you are not allergic I don’t think that you can die from them,” Pediuk said.
Among the different species of jellyfish, visitors can also observe some local ones from the Black Sea like “Moon Jellyfish.” For decades, the massive presence of these jellyfish in the Black Sea is problematic, especially for the fishing industry.
“For the Black Sea, it’s a huge problem because jellyfish eat all the plankton from there. In the 80’s they ate all plankton in the Black Sea and there was the huge damage for Black Sea fishing industry. I think it will only increase if we don’t do anything to keep them away from our sea. It will be more and more powerful and more and more problematic for our sea so I think that the government should take care of that problem,” Pediuk said
Only three weeks after its opening, the museum is already welcoming upwards of 600 a day.
