The presence of so many jellyfish has led lifeguards to urge beachgoers to avoid the creatures.<\/p>\n
In late June, officials warned swimmers to avoid the water near M Street beach in South Boston after several people were stung, and advised against letting children swim.<\/p>\n
\u201cJellyfish are visiting the beach at BCYF Curley Community Center in #SouthBoston<\/a> and have stung some swimmers … swim at your own risk,” the Boston Center for Youth and Families said in a Facebook post on June 24.<\/p>\n Scientists said Tuesday they don\u2019t know why the jellyfish have arrived in Massachusetts waters in such high numbers this summer. <\/p>\n Jellyfish do not swim, rather, they drift, said Owen Nichols, director of the Marine Fisheries Research program at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown. Because jellyfish go with the flow, their large presence must have been caused by a combination of ocean currents and winds.<\/p>\n The lion\u2019s mane species is native to large swaths of the Atlantic Ocean off the New England coast, Gawne said, but weather and ocean patterns usually keep them farther from shore.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the prevailing winds and currents are taking them out to Stellwagen [Bank National Marine Sanctuary], we don\u2019t talk about it as much, but if they\u2019re pushing them onto the beach like they are right now, people notice,\u201d Gawne said.<\/p>\n The abundance of jellyfish this summer was not anticipated by experts, Gawne added.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the questions we get a lot is how to predict this, but there\u2019s just so many inputs, from the water temperature to prevailing currents and wind that put these into contact with people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n While some species, such as sharks, may come closer to shore in search of food, that\u2019s not the case for jellyfish, which eat plankton and other small organisms, Gawne said.<\/p>\n And unlike other ocean species that are harvested commercially, people tend not to track jellyfish populations, Nichols said.<\/p>\n \u201cPart of the challenge is we don\u2019t have a lot of quantitative data on jellyfish abundance or distribution,\u201d he said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have data on who\u2019s catching them and how many there are, and they\u2019re not easily surveyed like some other marine resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Beginning in early to mid-June, fishermen off the eastern and southern coasts of Cape Cod began reporting large numbers of sightings, Nichols said.<\/p>\n Now, lion\u2019s mane jellyfish can be found in bays and harbors all up and down the Cape, Nichols said.<\/p>\n Residents have called or texted Nichols almost daily to report seeing lion\u2019s mane jellyfish with bells up to two feet in diameter. Their long, trailing tentacles can reach as much as 100 feet in some cases, according to marine biologists<\/a>.<\/p>\n Lion\u2019s mane jellyfish have also been reported on the North Shore as well as the South Shore, Nichols said.<\/p>\n Although Gawne completes most of his work for the aquarium at the office, he said he\u2019s received reports from fishermen and boaters who describe unusually large \u201cjellies.\u201d<\/p>\n People have been spotting the animals from Boston Harbor up to Manchester and Glouscester, Gawne said.<\/p>\n As a Swampscott resident, Gawne said he\u2019s seen beachgoers get stung by lion\u2019s manes a couple times this summer at Phillips Beach.<\/p>\n Because the jellyfish are so close to the shore and on the sand, more people are getting stung, officials warn.<\/p>\n Stings from larger specimens can be more painful, said Nichols, and the stings may feel more painful to a small child.<\/p>\n \u201cI tend to find their stings unpleasant, but I\u2019d rather have that than poison ivy on me,\u201d Nichols said.<\/p>\n Experts advise against using fresh water to wash the affected area, according to Gawne, because contact with fresh water causes jellyfish stingers, called nematocysts, to \u201cfire off\u201d more stings, he said.<\/p>\n Just use seawater, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd you don\u2019t want to sting your own hand or someone else\u2019s trying to get those\u201d nematocysts off, he added.<\/p>\n Use gloves or tweezers if they\u2019re available.<\/p>\n \u201cEven just use a credit card\u201d to scrape them off, he said.<\/p>\n Claire Thornton can be reached at claire.thornton@globe.com<\/a>. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto<\/a>.<\/p>\n