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Reuters
June 1, 2011
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/06/01/hundreds-feel-sting-of-jellyfish-on-floridas-east-coast/
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) - Thousands of jellyfish washed up on Florida's east coast over the Memorial holiday weekend, stinging swimmers and thwarting beachgoers.
Ocean lifeguards said about a thousand people had been stung since Friday, mostly at central Florida's popular Cocoa Beach.
"There's so many. If you walked out into the water, I almost guarantee a sting," Brevard County Ocean Rescue Assistant Chief Eisen Witcher told Reuters on Tuesday.
Large numbers of jellyfish are not uncommon, but the particular species getting blown ashore by strong east winds is unusual for the area.
Known as mauve stingers, the sea critters are a reddish-purple color. This is the first time a big bloom of the species has come ashore in the past decade, said Kevin B. Johnson, associate professor of oceanography at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne.
Why they arrived instead of the more familiar cannonball or Portuguese man-of-war breeds is the result of a combination of environmental factors tough to pin down, Johnson said.
But this much is known: Their on-shore appearance is as bad for them as it is for vacationers.
"As soon as they hit the beach, they start dying," Johnson said.
He suspects the jellyfish could stick around for a few more weeks, though there is no way to know for sure.
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