SANDinyourPANTS.com 000715-Jellyfish, a little too much nature.

A little too much nature.

000715-burial.JPG (38089 bytes)

Yeech, look what's washed up. This Purple Striped California jelly is just one of many out there this summer. I caught these beach goers following the lifeguard's recommendation prodding and poking this one into a hole they had dug with a stick trying to bury it. Now though all my friends have been stung one time or another, I've never have, but worrying about a dead one washed up on shore... oh come on! It can't still sting ya', can it?! As it turns out it can and you guessed it, these monsters make the perfect subject. Why are there kagillions this year? How can something sting when it's dead? Can they sting through wetsuits? What about those odd sounding sting remedies? As usual, I had lots of questions.

000715-purplestripedjelly.JPG (26394 bytes)

Luckily, hunting around for local experts on the subject wasn't tough this time since Long Beach's Aquarium of the Pacific is having a special exhibition called: Jellies, Phantoms of the Deep. They were kind enough to invite me down and spend some time with me on the subject.

Okay, I think first we all want to know why are there so many and when are we rid of them? Typical of science, there's no short answer. Indeed the slightly warmer ocean temperature may play a role, however it maybe just a lifecycle reaction. Turns out a jelly's lifecycle is broken down in five stages. Following the larval stage (the first stage) the larvae begin attaching themselves to solid surfaces until they grow and resemble a tiny flower, or polyp. Piers and other man made offshore structures are perfect hosts for this stage. In this second stage, the polyp stage, they clone themselves many thousands of times over the hard surface. The higher jelly population we see maybe the whole combo of things at work here, favorable water temp and cloning conditions, food source increases or just the synchronal maturing of a mess of polyps. No
one is quite sure at the moment and for this reason, though less jellies have been seen in the break in the last couple of weeks, neither is anyone willing to say that we'll be rid of their excesses soon. So why are they floating around in the break, do they want to be there? To explain that one you gotta know that jellyfish aren't fish at all. They are 'sea jellies', simple anatomy invertebrates pre-dating dinosaurs without eyes or a brain, and no heart. They meander around in search of plankton, brine shrimp and fish which the trap by zapping them with stinging tentacles then pulling them into their mouths with those dangling arms. They propel themselves by pulsating their umbrella-like bodies up and down, but this is no match for the strength of the current. They are enormously delicate and fragile creatures which accounts for all those jelly pieces you see at the water's edge. They are gathered for exhibit by professionals using large plastic bags to engulf them without harm. Special tanks that have circular currents are used to hold them to prevent them getting stuck in corners, sucked in water treatment equipment, or tearing themselves on sharp tank edges. Furthermore, as "Bubble Trouble" one of the Aquarium's interactive learning activities reveal (using a jelly replica of course,) a single air bubble can break a jelly apart. So the answer to the original question is no, if they had the capacity to think they'd probably wouldn't want to be in the break just about as much as we want rid of them. Okay, on to the stings.

The first thing you're greeted with upon entering the Aquarium's exhibit is the Sting-O-Meter. Stings are ranked in five forms: 1) harmless, 2) slight irruption, 3) painful, 4) sever pain & injury, and 5) possible fatality (that's where the 'yeech' comes in.) Our own Purple Striped California Jelly sting is ranked as painful. Thank goodness I have to take their word for it.

Now other stinging jellies native to our waters are the Moon Jelly which I see in all the local marinas, the Fried Egg Jelly, the West Coast Sea Nettle and the Comb Jelly. While the Fried Egg and Nettle ranked in the painful range, the Moon Jelly ranked with only slight irritation as its tentacle barbs have difficulty penetrating our thick skins. Hence the reason jellyfish cannot sting through wetsuits ...good to know, now I just hope I don't slip off my poorly waxed deck head-first into one. Lastly, the Comb Jelly plentiful off Catalina Island only reaches 2 to 4 inches and has no stinging cells. And by the way, the Man-O-War isn't the deadly one, it's the Box Jelly floating off Australia's coast.

The reason a jelly can still sting when dead is that a sting is an involuntary movement for them that occurs when something brushes up against their tentacles. Jellies have both 'arms' and tentacles. Stinging is a function of the tentacles which has hundreds of stinging cells suggesting

000715-moon.JPG (8903 bytes)
The Moon Jelly with its four distinctive circular stomachs.

000715-friedegg.JPG (15293 bytes)
The Fried Egg Jelly, what a mess.

000715-westcoastnettle.JPG (7855 bytes)
The West Coast Sea Nettle ranges from Oregon to California.

we are safe if we just touch an arm or the top of a jelly. When that unlucky swimmer brushes against one, "stinging cells burst open launching a stinger into the skin. Anchored by barbs, ...a long tube is shot into the wound injecting the venom throughout it." Yep, venom. Surprisingly, the stingers stay attached to the skin, but are too small to see and eventually wear off.

As forwarded in our Beach Quiz, the locals use meat tenderizer, vinegar, Preparation H, and even urine to sooth the pain of a sting which would normally last between one and two days. Professionals warn that sting reactions may vary widely among victims and you should consult your

medical advisor when stung before using any home remedies. No argument from me, since I couldn't get through one of these paragraphs without spell or grammar-check. However, I did find it informative in an Aquarium video that meat tenderizer's effectiveness may come from its ability to break down venom proteins. Makes sense. And the urine thing we remember from that old 'Friends' episode. Here I would point out the obvious advantage men were given and ask the women out there remember it the next time you're insisting the seat goes down.

Well, that's my interpretation of what's important in the world this time around. Our thanks to the Marilyn Padilla and the experts of The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Aquarium admission is $14.95 for adults and $7.95 for kids to 11, kids two and under are free. The Sea Jellies exhibit is the first exhibit in the Aquarium's new 2,500 square-foot gallery and will continue for about twenty months when the Aquarium replace it with another unique presentation. Along with the tanks, videos and other displays, the Aquarium offers interactive jelly learning activities like Jelly Jeopardy for the kids. Here's one a five year old ...and I missed. Jellies are most closely related to a) corals, b) fish, c) sea stars? Oops, the answer was corals not sea stars, jellies are apparently a member of the Naderia family like corals. Okay, I'm not exactly Wiley Coyote, super genius.

One last point the experts at the aquarium wanted to get out. Jellies are delectable prey to some species including sea turtles. Unfortunately, our plastic shopping bags floating in the Pacific look dangerously similar to jellies and are often mistaken for them by the turtles. The bags when ingested can clog a digestive track or choke and kill a sea turtle and the good folks at the aquarium ask that when we see a plastic bag floating in the bay, retrieve it and dump it properly so it doesn't float out to sea. You got it, we can do that.

EP.
July 15, 2000