New research discovered that jellyfish are capable of sensing ocean currents and can use that ability to pick directions to travel.

The study revealed that jellyfish form "blooms," or groups that clump together in the ocean in numbers as small as a few hundred at a time to as large as multiple millions. Jellyfish form these blooms on purpose by sensing ocean currents and changing their swimming behavior to stick close to one another.

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What has yet to be uncovered is exactly why these jellyfish rganize themselves into blooms in the first place.

While the little gelatinous creatures are quite efficient in traversing the waves, they can also detect the direction of ocean currents and effectively swim against them.

"Detecting ocean currents without fixed visual reference points is thought to be close to impossible and is not seen, for example, in lots of migrating vertebrates including birds and turtles," according to Graeme Hays, co-author of the study with Deakin University in Australia.

Hays added that jellyfish have advance orientation abilities.

The research also involved finding a way to tag jellyfish to track them, something that turned out to be much easier than originally thought, according to Hays. The professor mentioned there seems to be a very strong correlation between the jellyfish's ability to sense and respond to ocean currents and how these blooms form and persist.

Directed and active swimming helps to maintain these blooms. Further study is needed to uncover more information.

"Now that we have shown this remarkable behavior by one species, we need to see how broadly it applies to other species of jellyfish. This will allow improved management of jellyfish blooms," Hays said.

The new study was published in the journal, Current Biology.

Tagsjellyfish, blooms, marine creatures, ocean current, Ocean