Jellyfish Are Departing O.C. for L.A. County

The invasion of giant jellyfish that started on Orange County beaches last week appears to be on the wane, authorities said Thursday.

But the creatures apparently are heading up the coast.

The onslaught has “definitely tapered off,” Matt Brown, a marine protection officer in Laguna Beach, said about the animals -- some as big as car tires -- that have been washing ashore and scaring off beachgoers since July 20. “A week ago I saw a bunch. I haven’t seen as many the last couple of days.”

Kai Weisser, a marine safety officer in Huntington Beach, offered a slightly more cautious assessment: “Their numbers have diminished, but they haven’t disappeared.”

Dennis L. Kelly, head of the marine science department at Costa Mesa’s Orange Coast College, said the jellyfish appear to be moving slowly north with the ocean current. “They’re drifting up the coast. The largest concentration isn’t off Huntington and Newport anymore.”

Kelly said he expected the jellyfish -- whose scientific name is Chrysaora achlyos -- to begin appearing at San Pedro today and, if the current continues, to reach the Palos Verdes Peninsula by Saturday.

“They should be coming up in fairly high numbers this weekend,” he said. “We [in Orange County] just got one edge. There’s a huge pool of these things stretching off shore.”

Commonly called giant black jellyfish because they appear that color from a distance, the animals have parachute-like tops as wide as 3 feet and tentacles sometimes three times that length. They can inflict an irritating wound, which Kelly described as somewhere “between an ant bite and a bee sting.”

About 150 people were stung Wednesday at Huntington Beach, Weisser said, and he estimated Thursday’s number to be half that. The same area documented more than 1,400 jellyfish stings over the weekend, he said.

All week, Weisser said, lifeguards have been treating victims by rubbing their wounds with a mixture of water and vinegar to ease the sting. “We’ve had quite a few return visits to the grocery story for water and vinegar,” he said, “which is rather strange for lifeguards.”