Overview
- Researchers report in Frontiers in Marine Science that collagen from jellyfish accidentally caught in nets matches the quality of collagen from hand-collected animals.
- Working with 16 small-scale fishers in the Spanish Mediterranean, the team logged bycatch and found barrel jellyfish were most common, then confirmed in lab tests that net capture did not damage collagen structure or yield.
- The approach could turn a burdensome catch that clogs nets and stings crews into income for fishing communities as warming seas are expected to keep jellyfish plentiful.
- Scaling will be hard because jellyfish spoil fast and are mostly water, which strains transport and storage, and marine collagen can carry toxins such as arsenic or mercury.
- The global collagen market was valued at about $11.71 billion in 2025, and companies like Jellagen and JellyCo are already exploring jellyfish collagen for medical and skincare uses.