A scientist doesn’t often fret that his research subjects might clog the ventilation system of his office. But Chad Widmer, 37, a senior aquarist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium just south of San Francisco, studies jellyfish, and along the world’s coasts, jellies seem to be exploding in size and number, pulsing through waters they haven’t ventured into before. In places like the Gulf of Mexico—where 60-pound blobs with 80-foot tentacles have appeared in recent years—the increasingly abundant creatures provoke mostly fear and disgust. To Widmer, though, everything about the jellies is fascinating. (He has a crystal jelly, the Aequorea victoria, tattooed on his left leg.) He especially wants to be able to predict their “blooms,” sudden spurts in the jelly population that can wreak havoc on fishermen’s nets or snarl a building—like the Monterey Bay Aquarium—whose operations depend on running seawater through it.
The aquarium stands on a part of ...
