Editor’s Notebook -- Danette Goulet

Danette Goulet

I have long thought people go too far with this whole politically

correct business. But now it seems we have a new wave of nit-picking --

scientific correctness.

Last week I took my dog down to the beach to find it deserted of

humans and canines, but rife with what I thought were sailed jellyfish.

They were quite stunning creatures, actually, ringed in a translucent

cobalt blue.

The empty beach, however, led me to believe they might be nasty

critters. So I left and began to research the gelatinous visitors.

I put a call in to our nature columnists Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray,

who told me that they were called velella and not really jellyfish at

all. Actually, Vic gave me a couple helpful tidbits of information

followed by the admonishment that biologists would ask that we not call

them jellyfish any longer, as they are not at all fish, but rather call

them “sea jellies.”

Oh, and starfish were no longer to be called starfish, but “sea

stars.”

Sea jellies? I have a whole host of problems with this. First,

everyone knows what a jellyfish is, but what, pray tell, is a sea jelly?

Sea jelly doesn’t even sound like something living. Which brings us to

our second point. I never remember thinking a jellyfish was actually a

fish, but I always knew it was alive. If you tell a child “look there’s a

sea jelly” they’re going to think mmmmm . . . peanut butter and jelly.

They already know of grape jelly, raspberry jelly, strawberry -- now

sea jelly. Better we call it “live often-stinging jelly” to be more

accurate.

But really, the major problem I have with this is that nature is

fraught with creatures that, by this standard, are misnamed.

Take the sea lion, for example -- not really a lion. How about the

water moccasin -- it’s not a shoe. There’s a lizard called a thorny devil

-- is that creature really Satan incarnate? How about the Tasmanian

devil?

Then there is the sea horse -- not a horse, not even a pony. And try

using a sand dollar to buy something, you won’t get much for a sand

dollar.

Need I go on?

Can’t we just continue to call it a jellyfish and point out to any who

might be confused that while it is a sea creature, it is not technically

a fish.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 danette.goulet@latimes.comf7 .