17/08/2026
People are often afraid of jellyfish, imagining them as dangerous sea creatures whose touch causes unpleasant burns.
However, the Mediterranean jellyfish (Cotylorhiza tuberculata) shatters this myth.
Its peculiar appearance – like a floating egg with a yellow center and transparent edges – makes it one of the most unusual phenomena of the Adriatic.
Unlike its more dangerous relatives, this jellyfish is not dangerous to humans, and its presence in the sea often means one thing: the water is clean and healthy.
One of the main issues created by annual blooms of C. tuberculata is an interference with human recreational and financial activities.
The usual water-related activities of tourism, in addition to more commercial activities such as fishing, are often disrupted due to the sheer number of jellyfish in the waters.
This often results in the removal of thousands of Mediterranean jellies from the waters by coastal officials in the summers by fishing boats or large nets.
Another possibility raised by the prevalence of jellyfish, however, is their usefulness to humankind. C. tuberculata have been studied due to their specified cytotoxicity in regards to certain breast cancer cells, which is made possible due to the organism's efficient intercellular gap junction communication.
While further studies have been proposed to further research jellies' cytotoxicity in targeting breast cancer, there still is not much investigation on the topic.
Since a main objective in cancer research is to create treatments that selectively kill malignant cells while leaving healthy ones intact, Cotylhoriza tuberculata may become a model organism for the treatment of those human ailments.
