Tracking jellyfish with stick-on transmitters
A Queensland researcher says he will use a plastic surgery technique to attach transmitters to jellyfish to learn more about their breeding habits.
Jamie Seymour, from the James Cook University in Cairns, says he plans to tag jellyfish in Weipa in a fortnight to track their movements.
"The transmitters we're using are small," Mr Seymour said. "We actually glue them on with a product that they use for plastic surgery.
"Instead of using stitches they use this superglue-type stuff so you don't end up with scars, so we use exactly the same thing - glue the transmitter on the animal and then release it again. That way it's not too stressed, it happily swims away and does its thing."
Mr Seymour says he is hoping to conduct further research in Darwin at this time next year.
"It really depends on what the season does," he said. "I need reasonably large animals to do this. If you put the transmitter on a smaller animal all it does is sink to the bottom and just sits there which is another reason why Darwin's so spectacular for this.
"There seems be huge animals up there and lots of them whereas you tend to have to work really hard in places like Townsville and Cairns to find the right number of animals," he said.