By Justin Nobel on September 15, 2014
First the bad news: Jack mackerel have been
decimated, Atlantic cod populations have collapsed and Mediterranean bluefin
tuna are declining at alarming rates. In fact, in recent years some marine
ecologists have claimed, controversially, that all fisheries on earth could
collapse by 2048. But in the tiny port town of Darien, Georgia, there’s a
happier story to be told.
Thornell King’s salty 73-foot shrimp trawler, the
Kim-Sea-King, steams down the muddy Darien River, past Sapelo Island’s big red
and white striped lighthouse and into the Atlantic. About five miles offshore a
crewmate spots, floating near the surface, a mat of gyrating grapefruit-sized
globs that stretch the length of five city blocks, a slick so thick it appears
as if you could walk on it.
Cannonball jellyfish.Cannonball jellyfish.
These are cannonball jellyfish. Locals call them
“jellyballs.” And they will be dinner.
“Jellyballs have been very, very good to me,” says King,
who has worked as a state trooper for the last 20 years, and might be the only
jelly-balling cop in the country. This past season was particularly robust:
King and his men caught
an
estimated 5 million-plus pounds of cannonball jellyfish. At what King says is
this year’s price (seven cents a pound), this equates to $350,000. Statistics
are absent in this burgeoning new industry, but since King operates three of
the fewer than 10 boats legally fishing jellyfish
in Georgia, and there are maybe a handful in Florida and South Carolina, the
market value of the jellies being fished in the U.S. can be estimated at
somewhere in the low millions.
National Marine Fisheries Service data for the U.S.
suggests 2,152 metric tons of cannonball jellyfish were harvested in 2011,
worth $301,000, but the figure doesn’t include confidential data submitted by
states, which would likely raise these numbers dramatically, and thus is
incomplete.
The cannonball jellies in the waters off the
southeastern U.S. are so plentiful that even the Georgia Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) doesn’t know exactly how many there are. The main thing holding
the industry back is the development of more processing plants.
To catch jellyfish, this funnel — capable of holding
3,000 pounds of jellies at a time — is dragged through the water.1Thornell King
repairs nets with one of his crew.2
1To catch jellyfish, this funnel — capable of
holding 3,000 pounds of jellies at a time — is dragged through the water.
2Thornell King repairs nets with one of his crew.
These brownish Cnidarians (from the Greek knide, or
nettle, for their ability
to
sting) are now the state of Georgia’s third biggest fishery by volume, behind
crabs and shrimp. The first cannonball jellies were commercially harvested off
the Gulf Coast of Florida in the early ’90s, and since then Darien, Georgia,
has become the epicenter of the industry.
In
1998, the DNR issued experimental permits to allow some harvesting, and in 2013
jellyfish became a formally regulated state fishery. “It has been a really good
success story,” says DNR biologist Jim Page. “We went from a critter that back
in the ’60s fishermen hated because it clogged their shrimping nets to an
animal these guys have been able to take advantage of, and I imagine this
fishery will continue to expand.”
With one licensed jellyfish processing plant in
Darien — called Golden Island International — and another purportedly opening
soon, the jellyball industry (consisting of, in addition to the plant, six
boats, three of which are King’s) is a job creator. During the peak season from
November to about May, it employs around 150 people, a sizable number for the
town of about 1,900.
We may have no choice but to eat foods that make
sense ecologically — or can at least thrive in a changed environment.
At the Golden Island plant, the jellies are dried
and shipped to China and Japan, where they are cut into long, thin strips and
served in salads with cabbage and teriyaki sauce. If prepared right, the
jellyfish are crunchy, like a carrot. Jellyfish are popular in China, along
with other sea creatures like geoducks (those gigantic phallic clams from the
Pacific Northwest) for similar textural reasons.
But these sorts of foods are being embraced well
beyond Asia. And as climate change and the global industrial agriculture system
continue on what many view as a doomed course, we may have no choice but to eat
foods that make sense ecologically — or can at least thrive in a changed
environment. Jellyfish, prolific breeders with low metabolic rates and the
ability to eat almost anything (some breeds just ingest organic material
through their epidermis), have survived in unfriendly environs for centuries.
But in the end, even jellyfish are prone to humanity’s insatiable appetite; the
reason why the Georgia cannonball jelly industry is booming, according to at
least some involved in the industry, is because the creatures have been
overharvested in parts of Asia.Proteins are perhaps the biggest hurdle to
feeding a growing planet. “I am not a doomsdayer,” says Dr. Paul Rozin, a
biocultural psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, but he does believe
that our ecology is threatened. Not only are the world’s fisheries in trouble,
but the meat industry has received increasing criticism for inhumane practices.
When the boat returns to shore, jellies are vacuumed
onto a conveyor belt before processing.When the boat returns to shore, jellies
are vacuumed onto a conveyor belt before processing; Outside Golden Island
International; Partially dried jellyfish in brine, ready to be shipped to Asia.
“What we eat and how we produce it needs to be
re-evaluated,” states a 2013 United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization
report on edible insects. The paper points out that insects already form part
of the diets of at least 2 billion people. Rearing insects uses less land than
traditional livestock, and insects can be equally if not more nutritious and
are more efficient at converting feed into protein. Crickets, for example, need
12 times less feed than cattle (and half as much as pigs and broiler chickens)
to produce the same amount of protein. “The case needs to be made to consumers
that eating insects is not only good for their health,” reads the U.N. report,
“it is good for the planet.”
Still, for now, most Americans are averse to eating
bugs — or jellyfish. But Rozin points to sushi as an example of how tastes can
change. In the 1950s, average Americans would have politely spit into their
napkins if served raw fish. Now even residents of deeply landlocked
metropolises can eat fresh sushi at a Japanese restaurant. But the main lesson
is one of foodonomics. Sushi is associated with worldliness and wealth, even
though you can now find it at most malls; i.e., sushi was popularized from the
top down.
“The question is, what is it about a particular
animal that makes it more disgusting than others?” asks Rozin. “We don’t want
to eat bats; we don’t want to eat rats; we don’t want to eat cats.” Why don’t
we want to eat jellyfish? Rozin believes it could be because of the sliminess
factor. Yet other slimy foods have gotten around this to thrive in America —
most notably oysters.
Outside Golden Island International.1Partially dried
jellyfish in brine, ready to be shipped to Asia.2
1Outside Golden Island International.
2Partially dried jellyfish in brine, ready to be
shipped to Asia.
Back on the coast of Georgia, King says he doesn’t
think Southerners will ever appreciate the jellyfish. “I don’t want to
disrespect,” says King, leaning against the shiprail of the Kim-Sea-King as
summer thunder rumbles in the distance, “but if I take something home to my
wife for dinner, it’s not going be jellyballs.”
At nearby Golden Island International, though, a Friday
afternoon jellyfish taste test is underway. April Harper, Golden’s spunky
manager, has chopped celery into thin slices and shredded carrots. To this she
adds a teriyaki vinaigrette and slivers of jellyfish. Moments ago, the slightly
diaphanous product looked like a granny’s shower cap, but cut into strips and
put in the salad it resembles a tiny bowl of linguine, and Harper says it is
very refreshing. The samples are for the fishermen, most of whom are unfamiliar
with the product they are out there catching, but Harper plans on inviting
other Darien residents soon. The company plans to push the product on the
American market after completing research on its nutritional value.
“Right now, you go into a sushi restaurant and you
order a squid salad,” says Harper enthusiastically. “I mean come on, I think we
can beat the pants off a squid salad!”
