Certainly jellyfish are seasonal, and owing to a complex range of

Hear the words of Steve Backshall, explorer of the natural world and witness to its hidden rhythms: “Certainly jellyfish are seasonal, and owing to a complex range of environmental features there are years when they will appear in far greater numbers.” At first, these words seem only to describe the wandering of sea creatures, but beneath them lies a lesson about balance, about cycles, and about the delicate web of nature upon which all life depends. For the jellyfish, drifting and ancient, are not merely curiosities of the ocean—they are messengers of change.

When Backshall speaks of seasonal jellyfish, he reminds us that nature moves in cycles: tides rise and fall, moons wax and wane, and creatures appear and vanish according to patterns older than memory. But these cycles are not simple, nor fixed. They are shaped by countless forces—temperature, current, wind, and the unseen chemistry of the sea. The jellyfish, fragile and translucent, becomes a sign of these shifts, multiplying in great numbers when the ocean’s balance tips one way or another. Thus, their presence is not random but a signal, a reflection of deeper movements in the living world.

The phrase “complex range of environmental features” reveals the truth that life is never governed by a single cause. Just as the fate of a forest depends on rainfall, soil, insects, and sunlight, so too the fate of the jellyfish depends on many interwoven strands. In some years, warmth and current align to create abundance; in others, scarcity prevails. Here lies a lesson for humankind: to understand life, one must look not at single causes, but at the great tapestry of forces that work together. To ignore this complexity is to misunderstand the very essence of nature.

History gives us an example in the jellyfish blooms of Japan, where fishermen have long dreaded the sudden swarms of giant Nomura’s jellyfish. In certain years, their numbers swell so greatly that nets are destroyed, fish are poisoned, and livelihoods collapse. Scientists have shown that these blooms are tied not only to seasonal change, but also to overfishing, warming waters, and pollution. The jellyfish do not merely arrive—they testify. They reveal how human actions have shifted the balance of the seas, creating conditions where they may flourish unchecked. Thus, the jellyfish become both a natural phenomenon and a mirror of human folly.

The deeper meaning of Backshall’s words is this: the abundance of life is never random—it is always a reflection of the world we shape and inherit. When the seas grow warm, when predators decline, when currents shift, creatures respond. And so too in human life: when communities neglect justice, when societies starve the poor, when greed consumes the earth, consequences will appear in great numbers, as surely as jellyfish rise with the season. What seems sudden is in truth the fruit of many hidden causes.

This is a teaching of humility. The jellyfish, though simple in form and mindless in motion, endure as survivors of hundreds of millions of years. They remind us that fragility and strength may dwell together, that the smallest of beings may outlast empires, and that nature answers not to our desires but to its own eternal rhythms. To see their swarms is to be reminded that humanity is but a guest in this vast house of life, subject to laws we cannot command.

Children of tomorrow, let this lesson be carried in your hearts: respect the cycles of nature, and seek to live in harmony with them. Do not think the world bends only to your will; understand that your actions, like winds upon the sea, ripple outward and return in ways unseen. Protect the oceans, restrain your waste, honor the balance of the earth, lest the signs of imbalance—whether jellyfish in their billions, or storms beyond reckoning—rise against you.

Thus, the wisdom of Backshall’s words endures: that the seasons of nature are woven with complexity, that the creatures of the sea are teachers as well as mysteries, and that balance is the path to survival. To heed this wisdom is to live with reverence; to ignore it is to invite ruin. Learn, therefore, from even the humblest of beings, for in their cycles lies the story of the earth itself.