Aurelia labiata (Scyphozoa) jellyfish in Roscoe Bay: Their spatial distribution varies with population size and their behaviour changes with water depth

During 2003 and 2004, there were large numbers of Aurelia labiata medusae in Roscoe Bay and they distributed themselves across the entire bay. A smaller population present during 2006 and 2007 typically formed an aggregation in the west half of the bay. Since currents would have been the same during these two time periods, the behaviour of medusae must have influenced their distribution. The way medusae spaced themselves in aggregations appeared to interact with tidal currents to produce the difference in medusae distribution during the two time periods. In a second series of observations, I found that medusae were not stranded on a Roscoe Bay beach by ebb tides. When the depth of the water column declined to about 1 m or less, medusae in an intertidal zone dove down and bumped into the bottom or swam into rocks or oysters. Their response to these collisions was to swim to the surface or within a few centimetres of the surface. Since the ebb stream was at the surface, being at the surface increased the probability that medusae drifted out of the intertidal zone. The influence of medusae behaviour on their distribution and on their avoidance of stranding is a further indication of the importance of adaptive behaviour in the ecology of Aurelia labiata medusae.