{"id":4326,"date":"2020-08-12T00:18:24","date_gmt":"2020-08-12T04:18:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/?p=4326"},"modified":"2020-08-12T01:19:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T05:19:54","slug":"sea-lice-in-ocean-county-waters-how-many-are-there-and-how-long-until-they-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/2020\/08\/sea-lice-in-ocean-county-waters-how-many-are-there-and-how-long-until-they-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Sea Lice’ in Ocean County Waters: How Many Are There, and How Long Until They Leave?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A beach day at the Jersey Shore, Aug. 2020. (Photo: Patricia Nee)<\/p><\/div>\n

Sporadic reports of \u201csea lice,\u201d which are actually the larvae of the thimble jellyfish, have caused concern among some people visiting the Jersey Shore over the last week, and leading other to flock to social media to ask if they should cancel their vacations.<\/p>\n

The short story: the number of the practically-invisible, stinging creatures are small in Ocean County, and they will not be around for long. Most of the reports of the species have come from Cape May County, and they are found much more sporadically in local waters. But there is reason to be cautious of another jellyfish, too.<\/p>\n

Dr. Paul Bologna, director of the Marine Biology and Coastal Sciences Program at Montclair State University, said there are several species that are often given the name \u201csea lice,\u201d including the sea louse, a small crustacean in the Pacific Ocean. Sometimes, it refers to a larval sea anemone. But in New Jersey, the reports are referring to the larvae of the thimble jellyfish (Linuche unguiculata), which is most commonly found in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. During the summer months, the larvae get carried by the currents of the Gulf Stream offshore, but events such as large storms with strong winds can push them closer to the coast. It makes sense that reports began coming in just after Tropical Storm Isaias struck New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re being produced in the tropics and being pushed up by the Gulf Stream,\u201d Bologna told Shorebeat, adding that the chance of encountering them are \u201chit or miss\u201d depending on the wind, tide and the simple chance as to whether they happen to be floating where someone is swimming. Despite the fact that they are here, the local sea lice contingent does not pose the risk they do when they show up at beaches in tropical regions.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have a lot to be concerned about because I don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to have any extreme sting events,\u201d Bologna said. \u201cIn the Gulf of Mexico off of Florida when they\u2019re in super high densities, they can be very bad when there are millions and millions in the water column. But here, mostly it\u2019s a minor irritation, maybe a little painful, but in general you can treat it like an insect bite.\u201d<\/p>\n

A time-honored solution for getting rid of jellyfish stings \u2013 dousing one\u2019s self with vinegar \u2013 probably won\u2019t work because sea lice are so small, Bologna said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have tentacles and stinging cells that have not fired off yet, vinegar immobilizes them so you can remove what still might be on your skin,\u201d said Bologna. \u201cIn this case, they\u2019re so small that when they bump into you and release, or get trapped in your bathing suit, they\u2019re just rubbing against your skin and everything is being fired off at once. By the time you get out of the water, there isn\u2019t much residual left.\u201d<\/p>\n

Changing your bathing suit, washing the area that stings and applying\u00a0Hydrocortisone cream should relieve most discomfort.<\/p>\n

The fact that sea lice are even in the water column to begin with does bring up a secondary \u2013 but more serious \u2013 concern, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u00a0Portuguese man o\u2019war could be next,\u201d said Bologna. \u201cThey\u2019re far out, and they just need a reason to get blown inward. Every time we get a storm that\u2019s kind of like this, we get those guys washing up as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Portuguese man o\u2019 war is a purple-colored jellyfish that can give off a nasty sting which sometimes requires medical attention. There haven\u2019t been sightings reported, but beachgoers should still be on the lookout. Plus, reports of either sea lice or man o\u2019 wars should be reported to lifeguards.<\/p>\n

\u201cLifeguards talk to each other and this information gets passed up and down the coastline,\u201d said Bologna. \u201cIt\u2019s always good to report it to the people who are watching over the swimmers and bathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, to the major question: how long will these unwelcome Jersey Shore guests be around?<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re probably going to be around for at least a couple of weeks,\u201d Bologna said. \u201cUsually, they\u2019re in the water column for a week or two weeks in a larval duration, then they\u2019ll exit.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Sporadic reports of \u201csea lice,\u201d which are actually the larvae of the thimble jellyfish, have caused concern among some people visiting the Jersey Shore over the last week, and leading other to flock to social media to ask if they should cancel their vacations. The short story: the number of the practically-invisible, stinging creatures are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150,9],"tags":[1013,11],"class_list":["post-4326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment-weather","category-featured","tag-sea-lice","tag-toms-river-nj-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/20200810_103934-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/tomsriver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}