Collection and Culture Techniques for Gelatinous Zooplankton

Abstract

Gelatinous zooplankton are the least understood of all planktonic animal groups. This is partly due to their fragility, which typically precludes the capture of intact specimens with nets or trawls. Specialized tools and techniques have been developed that allow researchers and aquarists to collect intact gelatinous animals at sea and to maintain many of these alive in the laboratory. This paper summarizes the scientific literature on the capture, collection, and culture of gelatinous zooplankton and incorporates many unpublished methods developed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in the past 15 years.