New evidence shows deep-sea animals enjoy dining on jellyfish more than scientists previously suspected, upending concerns that jellyfish blooms may be harmful to the ocean’s ecosystem, according to a study published Wednesday by a University of Hawaii researcher.

"It’s a good thing," said UH oceanography professor Craig Smith, who published the study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences with researchers from Norway and the United Kingdom. "The ocean may actually be more resilient and marine ecosystems may be more resilient to the effects of jellyfish blooms than we originally thought."

Smith said evidence shows jellyfish blooms, or population explosions, are increasing, especially along coastal areas because of climate change and nutrients entering the sea, such as from agriculture.

Before the study, scientists said they suspected that after a jellyfish bloom, the jellyfish sank to the ocean’s bottom — a belief that came from piles of dead jellyfish seen on the seafloor.

The dead jellyfish, scientists suspected, rotted away in a carpet that choked off other sea life, short-circuiting deep-sea food webs.

"The general view has been that if jellyfish become really abundant, they’re really going to alter the function of marine ecosystems and reduce the available biomass, for example, for fishing," Smith said.

At the urging of Andrew Sweetman, a researcher in Norway and former UH postdoctoral student, Smith agreed to help investigate.

In October 2012 the scientists lowered 14 plates of jellyfish into a fjord about 3 miles off the coast of Norway.

The scientists employed a remote-controlled camera that Smith invented to re­cord what happened to the jellyfish platters in about 4,000 feet of water.

The first plate, loaded with six jellyfish and weighing about 4 pounds, sat on the seafloor for about 18 hours.

After reviewing the camera footage, the scientists found thousands of scavengers — including crabs and hagfish — devoured the meal in about three hours.

"What we found really surprised us," Smith said. "The jellyfish were consumed really rapidly — as rapidly as mackerel."

To double-check their findings, the researchers swapped the frozen jellyfish for fresh jellyfish. Then they tried lion’s mane jellyfish instead of helmet jellyfish. The results never changed.

Smith said previous speculations were wrong because there haven’t been many observations of jellyfish after a bloom.

"It does require rethinking how the ocean will function in the presence of jellyfish," he said, adding that the findings might benefit deep-sea commercial fisheries. The deep sea usually refers to below 650 feet.

Smith said he hopes to replicate his study in other parts of the world.