How to ‘Scoop’ Money from the Sea: Production of Jellyfish for the Asian Market on the iskito Coast

Abstract

The population of East Asia has consumed jellyfish for more than a thousand years. For a long time, China has been the main supplier and consumer. Economic and environmental forces are pushing this market out of China and into societies that have no tradition of capture or consumption of jellyfish. The research, conducted around the communities of Bilwi and Tuapí in the autonomous region of northern Nicaragua, reports the emergence of a jellyfish production industry along the Miskito coast in Nicaragua, which appears to have a significant impact on the local society and economy. This is generating employment opportunities for Miskito men, different from scuba diving, to catch lobsters, a dangerous and often deadly occupation.