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The resulting trail of environmental DNA, or eDNA, gives researchers clues about which species are in the ocean's twilight zone, and their relative abundance.
MARSHFIELD Their tentacles can stretch dozens of feet. The bell on top is often the size of a dinner plate and is usually a reddish-brown color. They drift along in the Atlantic waters off New England. And they sting.
Beachgoers along the coasts of Massachusetts last year began reporting a high number of sightings of lion s mane jellyfish, one of the largest kinds of jellyfish. A woman in Hingham was stung and Duxbury lifeguards started carrying around spray bottles of vinegar to help treat stings.
It s hard to predict if this year will see a similar uptick in sightings, but one scientific research institute in Maine is trying to track the jellyfish and predict where they will pop up next.
At the beginning of the dive, you’re in the ocean’s
epipelagic, or sunlight zone: the shallow waters where light still penetrates and photosynthetic organisms live. But as you dive deeper and deeper, the sunlight above you fades. The ocean around you gets darker and darker, colder and colder.
Amanda Northrop/Vox
At 200 meters, you enter a new division of the ocean. It is “the middle ground between light and shadow,” an area which scientists call . the twilight zone. (Or when they’re being technical, the mesopelagic zone.)
And if the televised
Twilight Zone lies somewhere between “the pit of man’s ignorance and the sum of his knowledge,” so does the one in the ocean.