Giant Nomura jellyfish are invading Japan! These monsters, which can weigh as much as 450 pounds and 6 feet 7 inches in diameter, are getting stuck in fishing nets and damaging them. This is bad news for people who depend on the fishing industry for their livelihood. However, some people are taking a terrible situation and turning it into an opportunity to produce something new.
For instance, according to the web site Pink Tentacle:
In the latest move in Japan’s war on giant jellyfish, high school students in the town of Obama have developed a new type of caramel candy made from the enormous sea creatures — and they are offering it up as a snack for astronauts in space.
The enterprising Obama Fisheries High School students have requested the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to place their chewy treat on the official menu for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. The space agency, which appears to be entertaining the proposal, is reportedly sending a representative to the school tomorrow (September 17) to evaluate the candy.
Described as having a sweet and salty flavor, the caramel’s ingredients include sugar, starch syrup, and jellyfish powder, which is obtained by boiling the jellyfish down to a thick paste, drying it, and grinding it into fine particles. The most recent batch of caramel uses powder from Nomura’s jellyfish snared last month in fixed fishing nets in nearby Wakasa Bay. The bay is located in Fukui prefecture, which has been among the areas hardest hit by the giant jellyfish swarms in recent years
Also, in a 2006 article at Pink Tentacle, the innovative students at Obama Fisheries High School made cute jellyfish cookies (or Ekura-chan saku-saku cookies) from the gigantic jellyfish with cute little faces stamped into the tops! These students really know how to take lemons and make lemonade...or jellyfish and make sweet treats from them!
Japanese scientists have also discovered that the jellyfish contain mucins that are a lot like human mucins, and could be helpful in treating a variety of ailments. See the video below for more information.
