Why is this research valuable?

Our sampling zone is recognized as a critically under-sampled region, though jellyfish blooms and their impacts are witnessed by fishermen and tourists. Given jellyfish blooms associated huge socio-economic, environmental and health issues, sufficient information regarding their taxonomy, population dynamics, food web roles, and composition, are relevant to design sustainable conservation measures. We undertook this research to raise awareness of the scientific community, policymakers and other sea users about jellyfish proliferations in the region, as well as their potential impact to foster sustainable conservation measures. The first step to that direction was to set up an inventory of available species and preliminary information on their ecology.     

How did it all start? 

This research started with a dream about one important courier I was receiving about an international opportunity during the night of the 11^th to the 12^{th of} February 2017. On Monday, 13^th February 2017, I received a call from the Ministry of Environment, of nature protection and sustainable development in Cameroon inviting me to attend a Training workshop on “Pest Risks analysis”. After that training workshop organized at the Ministry Conference Hall the week that followed, participants were called to attend another training workshop the week after on “Commodity audit system”. I noticed that there was scanty information regarding invasive species of the marine environment. On the last slide of the last talk, it was written “Ballast water management”. I had heard about ballast water, but not knowing how destructive they could be for marine ecosystems if regulations were not well applied. At the time of the workshop, the regulation on Ballast water management was not yet adopted.

Once back at the research station, I started online research both on invasive species of the marine realm and ballast water management. As my computer could not yield good results due to its low performance, I used a new android telephone. The results obtained made me realize that jellyfish research was an unexplored boulevard in the region.

I made a survey among fishermen at Kribi beaches to assess the presence of jellyfish in our waters. People I met directed me to beach seine fishing where jellyfish samples in good condition could be found.

What was the research process like?

I remembered that I would go for sampling and once in the laboratory, I would not know exactly what to do, which features to check. It was difficult to rely only on scientific literature without additional guidance.  As I could not find any jellyfish specialist within the national scientific community, I sent emails to every jellyfish specialist found on research papers, calling for help, calling for collaboration. Fortunately, there were two positive responses to my calls. The first one agreed to review a proposal I developed, but her time was to be compensated. The second jellyfish specialist was Prof. Andre Carrara Morandini. I really do not know how to talk about him, because what he did and is still doing is amazing. Prof. Andre Carrara Morandini would respond to all my emails, he would also send me jellyfish blooms symposium papers, sending me all the scientific literature I would not have access to, sometimes apologizing for delay, and I was like “you do not have to apologize”. That is when I decided to adopt that research topic as my PhD research work. This was the third time I was changing my PhD research topic due to several constraints including a shift in my research career direction, the publication of a paper closely aligned with my second topic, and a conflict of interest. 

I shared with Prof. Andre the first results about our sole cubozoan species which I thought was a new species. Prof. Andre connected me to Dr. Ilka Straehler-Pohl, one of the well-known Cubozoa specialists in the world.  She discussed with his friend Prof. Mark Gibbons from South Africa to invite me at the 6^th International Jellyfish Blooms Symposium in Cape Town and attend the 2-days training on Scyphozoa and Cubozoa that was going to be organized after the symposium. My attendance at this Symposium and training workshop changed my perception and upgraded my skills as a future jellyfish specialist.

What about the funding of our research?

Until that time, I was sponsoring myself with my salary. As I was lacking even basic material and small equipment to work efficiently, I took a loan from my bank for 4years (2018-2022). That money was used to buy my materials, small equipment and reagents that could allow me to do taxonomy, including but not limited to 0.1g precision scale, slides, buckets, dissecting kits, gloves, sampling bowls, bowls for conservation, reagents (ethanol, formalin…), microtubes 2ml for molecular taxonomy, materials for writing  (note books, pen, papers, pencil…), tissue paper rolls, etc. That money also sponsored some field work activities but not all. Fortunately, we were having a light microscope Zeiss with four magnifications (5X, 10X, 40X and 100X) at the laboratory.

So, what did we find?

We discovered an unexplored macro-jellyfish (medusozoans) community made up of Scyphozoa and Cubozoa. Four main taxa were identified including Cyanea sp. (7.6%), Chrysaora sp. (20.6%), Chimaerus palmatus (25.4%), and Catostylus tagi (46.5%) with five color morphotypes. Chrysaora sp. and Cyanea sp. were all new records from the West Africa coastal region, which would need full description. The sole cubozoan found within the sample, Chimaerus palmatus, was one of the two African cubozoan ever described by Haeckel (1880) and which was thought to be lost. Till then no other record of this species was reported, except Gibbons et al. (2022) as Chirodropus palmatus. So, we fully described this species (Straehler-Pohl et al., 2022) which was classified within our newly created genus Chimaerus.

This paper also gives preliminary glimpse of species ecology including species abondance and size variation, and their inter-relationship. Identified species could complete their entire life span within this environment except for Cyanea sp. which occupies a distinct niche. C. palmatus and Cyanea sp. abundances were highly correlated.

What are the implications of these findings, and what happens next?

Our research^1-2 set the foundation for future research works which include the molecular characterization and phylogeny of our morphologically identified species, the study of species reproductive biology and role within the food web using eDNA and other available techniques, as well as their potential valorization in the region. 

Since we finished this part, we are also looking for funding, training and collaboration to perform these research activities - so if you are reading this and you are interested – please do reach out!

Corresponding author of the paper: Gisele Flodore Ghepdeu Youbouni ggiseleflodore@yahoo.fr. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44289-025-00088-z

References

• Ghepdeu, G. F. Y., Chougong, D. T., Morandini, A. C., Meutchieye, F., Dicka, E. H. K., Mbacham, W. F., & Tchoumbougnang, F. (2025). A first approach to unravel the jellyfish diversity and ecology of the Kribi coastal region (Cameroon, Gulf of Guinea). Discover Oceans, 2(48). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44289-025-00088-z 

• Straehler-Pohl, I., Ghepdeu, G. F. Y., Chougong, D. T., Tchoumbougnang, F., & Morandini, A. C. (2022). Ernst Haeckelʼs mysterious species, Part II: African Chirodropida (Cnidaria, Cubomedusae). Plankton Benthos Research, 17(4), 406–429. https://doi.org/10.3800/pbr.17.406