Over 400 injured off Florida beaches in jellyfish attack
Off Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach this weekend, hundreds, maybe thousands, of jellyfish swarmed and ultimately injured over 400 swimmers. Lifeguards were forced to “raise the purple flag” which indicates a warning of hazardous marine life.
“It could be thousands. It’s hard to see them in the water right now. All you can see are the ones on shore,” Volusia County Beach Safety Captain Tammy Marris told Reuters. Details were still emerging on Monday.
Surfer Jerry Phillips told Orlando’s WESH-TV that he was standing in the ocean with his daughter when he was stung.
“I think the tentacles wrapped all the way around my leg and really stung me,” he told the station. “I did scream a little bit.”
“They were all over and all in multiple sizes,” beachgoer Michelle Craycraft told WFTV.
Jellyfish stings can be dangerous or fatal in rare cases in which the victim is severely allergic to the venom.
Marris said the size of the swarm and number of people stung are not unusual, adding that it is hard for beachgoers to predict when the jellyfish will wash towards shore.
“They’re at the mercy of the wind and the current,” she said.
While they can appear in various colors but typically surface with a translucent milky color on central Florida beaches. This makes them difficult to spot and easy to “run into.”
One of the home remedies to alleve pain is vinegar, which most lifeguards have onhand.
“They have some vinegar that they can put on there, which helps get through the pain a little faster,” Capt. Ray Manchester, with Volusia County Beach Safety said.
About 200,000 people are stung annually in Florida, according to the National Science Foundation.
One of the most famous jellyfish attack survivors is Ian McCormick, who was stung several times by the deadly box jellyfish. Ian’s story is featured in a brand new film called The Perfect Wave – more on that HERE
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