"Invasion Of The Jellyfish" (CT)

From Theday.com

Waterford beach lifeguards Anders Drew and Silvia Stockman spend most of their mornings now scooping up swarms of jellyfish from the shoreline before beachgoers arrive. But all their scooping still can't stop people from getting stung.

”This is probably the worst year we have had,” said Stockman, who's been at the beach four years.

Drew, the head lifeguard, agreed.

”They beat us here this year,” he said.

While jellyfish are common at the region's beaches each summer, they've arrived earlier than normal.

”They've been stung today already,” said Barbara Stack of Waterford Saturday afternoon, motioning towards her two daughters and a friend who were playing at the water's edge.

Barbara and her husband, Ted, grew up in Waterford. Both said they did not remember a jellyfish problem in their childhood.

Dave Simpson, the acting director of marine fisheries for the Department of Environmental Protection, said the jellyfish invading Long Island Sound this year are “typical” lion's mane jellyfish, which, apart from a minor sting, do not present much of a threat to beachgoers unlike the Portuguese man-of-war that washed up on Westerly and Stonington beaches last summer.

The fruitful jellyfish population, however, is not as alarming as their ahead-of-schedule debut to southeastern Connecticut shores, according to jellyfish expert Megan Pried.

Pried, who has worked for the last year and a half at the Mystic Aquarium and Institute for Exploration, said it is normal for jellyfish to be this abundant. What is out of the ordinary is their advanced arrival.

Pried said that locals reported jellyfish sightings as early as April. The normal jellyfish season begins at the end of May or the beginning of June, she said.

She credited the jellies' early arrival to warmer water temperatures.

”I do believe that global warming has some play in the temperatures warming up,” she said. “A lot of animals just go by temperature. They don't really know what else is going on.”

Pried explained that if jellyfish sense the water has reached a certain temperature, they will start reproducing and grow larger regardless of the season. She also said when the water is warmer, there is more food, helping the jellies grow faster, and prompting them to migrate to an ample food source.

The jellyfish follow their food - algae blooms - or come this direction with the Gulf Stream.

At the aquarium, Pried said the water is purposefully warmed, causing baby jellyfish, called ephrya, to come off of their polyps and begin feeding and moving about.

This is currently taking place in Long Island Sound. Due to balmy seas, the ephrya are now starting this process prematurely. But jellies are not the only confused marine life. ”Lionfish and other tropical fish that follow the Gulf Stream pop up in our waters and are not normally here,” Pried added.

She warns that lionfish are a venomous species that can cause a great deal of pain to bathers.