Gelatinous blobs with stinging tentacles may not sound like gourmet dining, but a new review of marine life shows that many species routinely snack on ocean jellies. In fact, some may depend on the calories they contain.

Jellyfish were previously thought to be a dead end for the food web due to their low nutritional content. On top of this, research has been sounding the alarm on the explosive growth of jelly populations due to climate change, overfishing, nutrient runoff, and habitat modification.

“I think a very negative perception of jellyfish came out, like ‘Watch out: they’re going to come and eat [you],’” says Jonathan Houghton, a biologist at Queen’s University in Northern Ireland.

But a review recently published