Nomura’s Jellyfish (for some time in the genus Stomolophus) was named in tribute to Mr. Kan’ichi Nomura (18??-19??), Director General of the Fukui Prefectural Fisheries Experimental Station, who in early December 1921 sent a specimen in a 72-liter wooden tank to Kishinouye, who found that it was unknown and spent some time at the station to study living specimens.
It is a very large jellyfish, in the same size class as the lion’s mane jellyfish, the largest cnidarian in the world. The diameter of one fully-grown is slightly greater than the height of an average fully grown man.
Growing up to 2 meters (6 feet 7 inches) in diameter and weighing up to 300 kilograms (ca. 660 pounds), Nomura’s Jellyfish reside primarily in the waters between China and Japan, primarily centralized in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea.
Shin-ichi Uye, Japan’s leading expert on the little-studied jellyfish, artificially bred some in his Hiroshima University lab, learning about their life cycle, growth rates and feeding habits. He traveled by ferry between China to Japan in 2009 to confirm they were riding currents to Japanese waters.
A U.S. Marine scientist, Jennifer Purcell of Western Washington University, has found a correlation between global warming and jellyfish on a much larger scale, in at least 11 locations, including the Mediterranean and North seas, and Chesapeake and Narragansett bays.
In 2009, a 10-ton fishing trawler, the Diasan Shinsho-maru, capsized off Chiba on Tokyo Bay as its three-man crew tried to haul in a net containing dozens of Nomura’s Jellyfish; the three were rescued by another trawler.
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