Gulf Of Mexico-Invasion of Pink Meanies

As the object got closer, Clyne, founder of Paradigm Video Productions of Key West, realized it was the largest jellyfish he'd ever seen and a species he didn't recognize - so he put on a mask, snorkel and fins and jumped into the water with his video camera.
"The first thing that occurred to me is that it looked like a huge, floating lion's mane pulsating back and forth," Clyne said. "It was so cool to see this symbiotic relationship going on: There were at least three species of fish living within the jellyfish's tentacles, and there was a crab living on the bell: I stuck my finger out, and the crab stuck out his claws, like saying, ‘Back off. This is my crib.”
The reason Clyne didn’t recognize the jellyfish is that it doesn’t belong in the Gulf — it’s an exotic species, native to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, Adriatic and Mediterranean seas, and has been recorded off Argentina, Brazil and Colombia.Scientifically known as Drymonema dalmatinum, the jellyfish is commonly called big pink jelly or pink meanie.
Big pink jellies have been reported in the northern Gulf, but Hector Cruz-Lopez of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had never heard of the species off Southwest Florida.“It’s suspected to travel in the ballast of merchant ships,” Cruz-Lopez said. “They’re apparently doing well.”Drymonema can also travel to unfamiliar water on currents.
Like many exotic species, big pink jellies can cause problems.“A few years ago, there was a big bloom of them off Puerto Rico, and it was a big problem for the shrimping industry,” Cruz-Lopez said. “The shrimp boats would go out, and their nets would be filled with this thing.”While some sources call big pink jellies invasive exotics (that is, harmful to their adopted environment), jellyfish expert Monty Graham of the University of South Alabama is not so quick to condemn the species, pointing out that they eat moon jellies, also known as Aurelia aurita, which are common in the Gulf.“They do a heck of a service clearing out other jellies,” Graham said. “I’ve pulled out Drymonema, and each one had 30 to 40 Aurelia in its tentacles.“Aurelia are predators of zooplankton, including fish larvae and eggs, and if you get so many moon jellies cleaning out the water, the spawning fish have to put out a lot of larvae or be fortunate enough to put eggs in water away from Aurelia.”Whether pink meanies are a good or bad exotic species, Clyne was fascinated by the one he got on video.“It was absolutely incredible,” he said. “Of course, it did sting — I went through it a couple of times. It wasn’t a jolt, like a man-of-war, just little stings, and it certainly was itchy after a while.”