Jellyfish Crowding NJ's Bays: What To Know About Sea And Bay Nettles

JERSEY SHORE, NJ — The calm, warm waters of New Jersey's coastal bays are inviting to families that head to the Jersey Shore each summer. They're especially welcomed by families with young children, where the waves are far less likely to knock youngsters down.

The bay waters are inviting to another creature, however: the sea and bay nettles. These jellyfish, a usual inhabitant of the bays, are making their presence felt in large numbers once again.

"This is the normal time for them to bloom," said Paul Bologna, a biologist and jellyfish expert from Montclair State University, writing in the Facebook group New Jersey Jellyspotters.

Bay nettles and sea nettles (there are two distinct species, according to the Virginia Institute of Marine Sciences) live in brackish water. They are bell-shaped and pale white, and can have reddish markings, and they have long thin tentacles around the edge of the bell. An adult can have a bell to up to 8 inches in diameter, with 24 tentacles several feet long, the institute said. Nettles are whiter where the water is more brackish, with the red and even purple more visible in saltier water, the institute said.

The population of bay nettles has risen significantly over the last 20 years, according to Save Barnegat Bay and the Barnegat Bay Partnership, with a variety of factors that may be causing that increase, including changes in the bays, the increase in docks, pilings and bulkheads (which provide a nesting ground of sorts for the nettles, which reproduce asexually), and other factors, the two organizations said.

The increase means it's more likely that anyone who wades or swims will get stung, which can be uncomfortable but generally not life-threatening unless someone has a jellyfish allergy.

For those swimming or wading, stings can be prevented by wearing lightweight protective clothing, such as Lycra "rash guards" or panty hose, or petroleum jelly spread on unprotected skin, the Barnegat Bay Partnership said.

Bologna offered tips on how to treat the stings from the bay nettles:

1. Immediately after the sting, apply white vinegar. This stops any stinging cells that have not fired in the tentacles.
2. Rinse the sting area with the salt water you are in (bay or ocean) to gently wash away any tentacles. DO NOT USE BOTTLED WATER to do this, the OSMOTIC SHOCK WILL CAUSE THOSE STINGING CELLS TO FIRE AND CONTINUE TO STING.
3. Take a clean cloth/towel and wipe the area clean.

After, there are various ways to deal with the sting depending upon the severity. Over-the-counter pain medicine, Benadryl-type over-the-counter medicines, and calamine lotion for itching, he said.

If you are on the ocean beach and get stung by a jellyfish, "the stings could be much more painful from lions mane jellyfish or other coastal jellies," he said.