Almost everything humans are doing to the ocean that is bad for most marine organisms – overfishing, pollution, rising sea temperatures, acidification, coastal construction, and the like – turns out to be good for jellies.

“Like the proverbial miner’s canary, jellyfish act as environmental indicators,” said conceptual artist Mark Dion. “Only instead of dying in this degraded environment they thrive.

Dion’s latest installation, “The Trouble with Jellyfish,” opens Friday at Le Laboratoire in Kendall Square.

“They’re stinging swimmers, clogging power plant intake pipes and fishermen’s nets, getting chopped up in boat propellers, and depleting fish,” marine biologist Lisa-ann Gershwin wrote in her 2013 book “Stung!”

Gershwin’s book was the inspiration for the installation, which uses real and representative forms of jellies to shine a spotlight on a vital environmental issue: the burgeoning blooms of these soft-bodied creatures the world over.

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