OCEAN CITY, MD— Reports of jellyfish stings continue to rise along the Delmarva coastline, with Ocean City beach patrol officials confirming a recent uptick in sightings and incidents.
The Ocean City Beach Patrol says stings have seen an uptick this week, following similar trends in Delaware.
“A couple weeks ago we had some of our beach patrol that were up in Delaware at a competition, and we know they were having some problems with them up there,” said Patrol Lieutenant Mike Stone. “And we’ve really started to see a problem down here this week.”
Beachgoers are also taking notice. Dareck Graham, who was surfing near Ocean City, described being stung during a recent outing.
“I was out there surfing, getting pretty pitted, went down pretty hard and yeah, I don’t know, this jellyfish just wrapped around my arm,” Graham said. “When I came out of the water my arm was all red and purple.”
Stone said lifeguards are equipped with sting treatment supplies and have been alerting the public.
As for why more jellyfish could be in the waters, the water getting warmer earlier could be to blame.
“Just in the years I’ve been here—sometimes in August, we tend to have an issue with them once the water gets a little bit warmer,” Stone said. “It was a little bit warmer to start the season, so maybe that has something to do with it. But you know, the last few summers we haven’t had those issues.”
With ocean temperatures expected to continue rising through August and into September, the increased jellyfish may continue to call Delmarva's waters home.