St. Lucie County - Thursday August 17, 2023: It’s that time of year when thousands of Moon Jellyfish wash up along Treasure Coast beaches. Their arrival has discouraged beach-goers for the past few weeks, but they appear to be receding now.
"There’s probably tens-of-thousands," said St. Lucie County Ocean Rescue Chief Andrew Ritchie. "They come around every year, usually three to five weeks or so. Sometime longer, sometimes shorter.”
Ritchie leads the team that guards the county beaches and in recent weeks they’ve been flying the purple flag, warning of the presence of stinging sea life. “So, if you see a purple flag that means there’s either Man of War, Jelly or Sea Lice out there,” said Ritchie.
Moon jelly fish are round and measure about 8 to 10 inches in diameter with short tentacles. “They don’t have long tentacles like a Man-of-War. They've real short spiny tentacles underneath them, on the bottom," he said. "And they just rub up against you, it feels like your rubbing up against a balloon or something.”
And they can give you a mild sting. “It’s pretty much of an irritation more than a sting, but if your allergic to something like that, like bee stings or something, you’d probably want to stay out of the water.”
In recent weeks many people did but the water. “They were all over the beach and all in the water there and so they were so abundant that a lot of people stayed out of the water for a few days. But its definitely dissipated a lot, and I think they’re pretty much on their way out, but it did keep a lot of people out of the water.”