Jelly fish, the tentacled marine animal treated as a menace, is a foreign exchange earner for many fishermen in the neighbouring States.
During the past few weeks, fishermen casting their nets in Vembanad Lake had been complaining that their nets are loaded with jelly fish. They also complain that the day’s catch has to be discarded when jelly fish lands in the net as the fish catch gets spoiled upon contact with jelly fish. Some complain that the marine species causes skin irritation.
Fishermen are forced to abandon the jelly fish that gets into their nets as no processing techniques or units have come up in the State. There has not been any attempt to familiarise them with the processing measures.
However, marine scientists pointed out that the species was a delicacy in Southeast Asian countries. The Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, Kochi, had even developed a process for making the fish edible and many fishermen in the east coast were exporting them, they said.
Jelly fish moves to freshwater bodies during summer months, when there would be an incursion of salinity in freshwater systems. The movement happens annually and there is nothing unusual in the sighting of the species during this time of the year, said Prathibha Rohit, the Principal Scientist of the Mangalore centre of the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi.
The presence of the species has been reported in Kerala water during the summer months.
Most of the jelly fish species are edible. Export units for jelly fish are operating in many parts of Kakinada and Vijayawada and parts of Tamil Nadu. They are often exported in pre-cooled condition to the foreign markets. The species was found in the Kerala waters during the summer months, she said.
No management measures have been devised for supporting the fishermen, who complain about the proliferation of the species. Jelly fish was some of the least studied marine species, said Ms. Rohit.
George Ninan, the Senior Scientist of the Fish Processing Division of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, said the jelly fish was made edible through simple processing methods using salt and alum. The umbrella-sized body part of the fish was processed after removing the tentacles, he said.
There are some toxic species among the jelly fish and the challenge is to spot the non-toxic ones. It is in the tentacles of the fish that the toxic element is present. Water content accounts for 97 per cent of the body of the jelly fish. Rhizostoma, which is popularly known as the Indian Jelly fish, is an edible species, which is dried and exported.
2014, The Hindu