Jellyfish (primarily scyphomedusae) fisheries have a long history in Asia, where jellyfish have been caught and processed as food for centuries. More recently, jellyfish fisheries have expanded to the Western Hemisphere, often driven by demand from Asian buyers and collapses of more traditional local fish stocks. Jellyfish fisheries have been attempted in numerous countries in North, Central, and South America, with varying degrees of success. Here, we chronicle the arrival of jellyfish fisheries in the Americas and summarize relevant information on jellyfish fishing, processing, and management. Processing technology for edible jellyfish has not advanced, and presents major concerns for environmental and human health. The development of alternative processing technologies would help to eliminate these concerns and may open up new opportunities for markets and species. We also examine the biodiversity of jellyfish species that are targeted for fisheries in the Americas. Establishment of new jellyfish fisheries appears possible, but requires a specific combination of factors including high abundances of particular species, processing knowledge dictated by the target market, and either inexpensive labor or industrialized processing facilities. More often than not, these factors are not altogether evaluated prior to attempting a new jellyfish fishery. As such, jellyfish fisheries are currently expanding much more rapidly than research on the subject, thereby putting ecosystems and stakeholders’ livelihoods at risk.

Coastal zones are important areas for the development of diverse ecosystems. The analysis of chlorophyll a (Chl a), as an indicator of primary production in these regions, is crucial for the quantification of phytoplankton biomass, which is considered the main food chain base in the oceans and an indicator of the trophic state index. This variable is greatly important for the analysis of the oceanographic variability, and it is crucial for determining the tendencies of change in these areas with the objective of determining the effects on the ecosystem and the population dynamics of marine resources. In this study, we analysed the Chl a concentration distribution on the mainland coast of the Gulf of California based on the monthly data from July 2002 to July 2019, obtained from remote sensing (Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer Aqua (MODIS-Aqua) with a 9 km resolution). The results showed a clear distribution pattern of Chl a observed along this area with the maximum levels in March and minimum levels in August. A four-region characterisation on this area was used to make a comparison of the Chl a concentrations during warm and cold periods. The majority of the results were statistically significant. The spectral analysis in each of the four regions analysed in this study determined the following variation frequencies: annual, semi-annual, seasonal, and inter-annual; the last was related to the macroscale climatological phenomena El Niño-La Niña affecting the variability of the Chl a concentration in the study region.

The Gulf of California (GC) is the only interior sea in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and is the most important fishing area in the northwestern region of the Mexican Pacific. This study focuses on the oceanographic variability of the GC, including its southern portion, which is an area with a high flow of energy and exchange of properties with the Pacific Ocean (PO), in order to determine its role in physical–biological cycles and climate change. The purpose of this work is to analyze the sea surface temperature (SST) and chlorophyll a concentration (Chl-a) during the period from 1998–2022 as indicators of long-term physical and biological processes, oceanographic variability, and primary production in the GC. In total, 513 subareas in the GC were analyzed, and a cluster analysis was applied to identify similar areas in terms of SST and Chl-a via the K-means method and using the silhouette coefficient (>0.5) as a metric to validate the clusters obtained. The trends of the time series of both variables were analyzed, and a fast Fourier analysis was performed to evaluate cycles in the series. A descriptive analysis of the SST and Chl-a series showed that the SST decreased from south to north. Six bioregions were identified using a combined of both SST and Chl-a data. The spectral analysis of the SST showed that the main frequencies in the six bioregions were annual and interannual (3–7 years), and the frequencies of their variations were associated with basin-level weather events, such as El Niño and La Niña. The SST in the GC showed a heating trend at an annual rate of ~0.036 °C (~0.73 °C in 20 years) and a decrease in Chl-a at an annual rate of ~0.012 mg/m³ (~0.25 mg/m³ in 20 years), with potential consequences for communities and ecosystems. Additionally, cycles of 10–13 and 15–20 years were identified, and the 10–13-year cycle explained almost 40–50% of the signal power in some regions. Moreover, mesoscale features (eddies and filaments) were identified along the GC, and they were mainly associated with the clusters of the SST. All these spatial and temporal variabilities induce conditions that generate different habitats and could explain the high biodiversity of the GC. If the warming trend of the SST and the decreasing trend of the Chl-a continue in the long term, concerns could be raised, as they can have important effects on the dynamics of this important marine ecosystem, including habitat loss for numerous native species, declines in the catches of the main fishery resources, and, consequently, support for the arrival of harmful invasive species.

The diet and feeding pattern of scyphomedusa Stomolophus meleagris (Rhizostomeae) was studied, by comparing stomach samples from different developmental stages and environmental zooplankton with the aim to determine diet composition, trophic niche breadth, selectivity and feeding overlap of this edible jellyfish species. Samplings were performed during April and December 2010 and in January 2011, in the coastal lagoon Las Guásimas (27°49′–27°54′N 110°40′–110°35′W), central Gulf of California, which consisted of zooplankton tows and jellyfish collections for stomach content. More than 39 prey items were identified in the gut contents (N = 69), from which eight taxa formed over 90% of the total. Fish eggs were considered main prey (58.6%), copepods (10.8%), veliger larvae of gastropod (13.0%) and bivalve (12.7%) were secondary prey while cirriped and decapod larvae were incidental prey (<3%). However, these proportions varied significantly between small, medium and large size classes of medusa as well as number and type of prey increasing as a function of medusa size. Values of Levin's index confirmed S. meleagris is a specialist predator and Pearre's index showed positive selection of fish eggs, gastropods, bivalves and cirripeds while selectivity was negative for copepods and appendicularians. The relative timing of these changes suggests that ontogenetic processes are closely related with shift in the diet, which indicates increasing predation pressure during development of the medusoid stage of this species, thus emphasizing their ecological importance in coastal ecosystems.