Periodic Reporting for period 1 - JELLYPACTS (Assessment of Jellyfish Socioeconomic Impacts in the Mediterranean: Implications for Management)
Reporting period: 2016-09-01 to 2018-08-31
From an ecological perspective, existing jellyfish monitoring techniques generally offer a limited view of jellyfish populations, as they mostly only provide a snapshot in time of jellyfish presence and abundances. JellyPacts developed an innovative automatic identification system using underwater cameras and state of the art artificial intelligence and neural networks techniques. The newly developed system, called Jellytoring, allows for the identification and quantification in real-time of three of the most abundant jellyfish species in the North-Western Mediterranean (Abadal et al., 2020; doi: 10.3390/s20061708). The researcher is currently working on expanding Jellytoring to a global level, allowing for the identification of a much wider number of species. Jellytoring opens up the possibility of inexpensive jellyfish monitoring systems to attain more robust scientific data on larger scales and for applications in coastal zone management.
From a social perspective, JellyPacts developed and implemented a specifically designed survey to understand coastal users’ views and behavioural intentions associated to the presence of jellyfish. The study did not only focus on current jellyfish abundances but went further and examined potential future behaviours in hypothetical scenarios of increased jellyfish numbers. In addition, scenarios where potentially dangerous jellyfish species, such as the Portuguese man o’war (Physalia physalis) would be present in the Mediterranean due to human-induced changes, were also explored.
In addition, the researcher developed a methodology using a combination of data available in social media sites (i.e. hashtags) such as Instagram and Graph Theory Network analysis, that can be applied to understand the different concepts, ideas and perceptions associated to jellyfish (for a description of the methodology see Ruiz-Frau et al., 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.ecoser.2020.101176).
From an economic perspective, JellyPacts collected data on coastal users’ preferences for different coastal management measures to mitigate the potentially negative impacts of jellyfish on the enjoyment of the marine environment and the benefits derived from it. Economic data in the form of people’s willingness to pay for different jellyfish management measures such as warning flags, information panels, real-time information, first aid availability or contingency nets, were evaluated. Data is currently being processed.
The development of Jellytoring is, to the researcher’s knowledge, the first of its kind, developed to achieve the cost-effective and continuous monitorization of jellyfish. It opens up the possibility of inexpensive jellyfish monitoring to attain robust scientific data on larger scales and for applications such as early warning systems on beaches or the inlets of power or desalinations plants. A global scale Jellytoring version is under preparation.
The development of the methodological framework aimed at identifying people’s perceptions on the services and disservices of nature (including jellyfish) and the different array of values attached to them using social media data has also pushed the boundaries of ecosystem services assessment. The combination of social media data and the use of graph theory network to analyse text data supposes an innovative aspect, as generally social media studies focus on the use of images and its interpretation, which has an inherent researcher bias attached to it. As this methodology allows the identification of the benefits and values that people ascribe to nature, its application goes beyond the scope of jellyfish and can be applied to natural spaces in general. Works based on this novel methodology have already had a high impact in scientific communication by reaching over 60,000 users in Twitter and an article in Glaciers Hub Blog from Columbia University (https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2020/08/25/instagra-human-environment-relationships/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=august_2020(opens in new window)
The choice experiment developed during the project contributes towards the provision of data of the willingness of society to pay for measures to mitigate jellyfish impacts in coastal areas. Although the same methodology has already been used to assess different jellyfish related aspects, no studies had previously focused on the evaluation of particular management measures.
The outputs of JellyPacts offer an improved methodology for jellyfish monitorization and an understanding of the social perceptions and reactions to the presence of jellyfish, as well as coastal users’ preferences and willingness to bear the costs of additional management measures. These aspects are fundamental components in the design of coastal management policies. The integration of the results of this study into coastal management strategies will offer the potential to improve coastal management and the perception and the experiences of coastal users, contributing to the mitigation of potential jellyfish impacts on a societal level.