As it turns out, jellyfish are strong swimmers who go where they want to, rather than mindless blobs cast about by the ocean’s current, a new study has found.

Despite not having a brain, a jellyfish has good swimming skills that can swim against the ocean’s current to go where they want to, according to a recent study published in the journal Current Biology, according to a Discovery News report.

Although scientists have long though that without visual reference points, it would be impossible for species to tell where they are — as is the case with migrating birds and turtles — the jellyfish has defied those expectations, said Graeme Hayes of Deakin University in Australia, who co-authored the study along with Sabrina Fossette of the Swansea Lab for Animal Movement.

They used GPS loggers to track the movements of barrel jellyfish, and used GPS-tracked floats to monitor ocean currents at the same time. What the found is that the jellyfish oftentimes swam against currents rather than go with them, allowing them to choose their destinations.

This would explain the phenomenon of jellyfish “blooms,” which is where swarms of jellyfish appear on ocean surfaces, as hundreds of millions of jellyfish swim to a certain location and stay there over a period of months.

The question is how jellyfish navigate in this manner. One answer could be that their bodies are able to detect ocean current sheer, or that they use Earth’s magnetic field to navigate. The latter of these methods is used by the sea turtle, its predator, to find its breeding ground year after year despite swimming many miles away from it.

Jellyfish are an important part of the ecosystem, serving as prey for leatherback sea turtles, and scientists find their movements helpful in understanding the environment. The animal is not so loved by fishermen, as they clog their nets, or by an unfortunate human who comes across a stinging variety.

The next step for researchers is to examine other types of jellyfish to see if they exhibit the same behavior, which would allow scientists to better manage jellyfish blooms.