Jellyfish?

[BuffaloGal]

We were at Hawksnest yesterday and found that there were a lot of jellyfish in the water. We've been coming to St. John for 7 years and I don't remember this being an issue before. Another woman on the beach said that the day before there hadn't been any at Hawksnest but that they had encountered a lot of them on an excursion stop at Marina Cay. Is this unusual or have we just lucked out in the past? I know they're not lethal, but there's a certain "ick" factor. Any insights would be appreciated.

[needmesomesun]

We have visited and not seen any at all. We have also had to swim through many teeny tiny jellies and nothing happened but a few sharp pinch like feelings (really nothing bothersome). There were so many that there was just no way around them.

Years ago we were floating at Salt Pond and I got stung badly. I never saw the jelly that did it, but it was the worst pain and there were streaks down my leg at the place of impact. Not fun. The pain did subside by the end of the day. The hardest part of the whole ordeal was resisting the urge to swear at the moment it happened, and the minutes following, as there were children around.

[stjchica]

I would be curious as well..Please keep us posted...10 days til island time..

[EagleRayLover]

The worse jellies this time for us for sure were at tue Indians! Like a land mine!

[sea-nile]

I saw some at Cinnamon. I think they were moon jellyfish. I will try to put the picture on here.
I saw these 2 days ago.

[BuffaloGal]

Yes, I've seen the same moon jellyfish with the four purple circles. I saw several at Honeymoon and another today at Francis.

[Seasister]

I was stung on the beach by a hotel on St Thomas. I ran up to the bar and asked the bartender what to do. He gave me vinegar. Pouring it over the sting was very relieving as the pain was intense. We saw a few jellies on St John at Brown Bay but no one was stung.

[stjchica]

Are the jellys around St. John the ones that give a normal jelly fish sting..Seems like
I remember reading about some that were worse than normal jellys but can't remember the name of them, or if they are around St. John.

[liamsaunt]

I have seen a lot of jellies on St. John, either moon jellies or a very small dome-shaped type. Neither has stung. I have been stung twice, once at the Indians, where I got a single sting on my lip, and once badly at Haulover North. In that case we later were told that there were broken up bits of jellies in the water. It kind of felt like being electrocuted. I got more than 30 welts and John had double that. It was really painful. We went to Lilly's and bought vinegar and ibuprofen, which helped. Then we went for drinks at Miss Lucy's and that really helped! The welts only lasted a day or two.

[dreamshark]

If they were moon jellies, they're pretty harmless. They either don't sting humans at all, or their sting is slightly irritating, depending on which website you believe. On our recent trip (September) I overheard a group of young women on the ferry talking about how many moon jellies they had run into on STT. Apparently one of the girls reacted (slightly) to the stings but the others didn't even notice them. They were teasing her about having "bee-stung lips" after swimming through the jellyfish, which of course had me covertly staring at her face (which looked fine at this point).

I saw quite a swarm of moon jellies at Salt Pond Bay, ranging from tiny to dinner-plate size. I took a couple of pictures and then retreated, not being eager to learn if I am one of the unlucky ones that are sensitive to them. However, I think I did brush against some of the small ones and didn't feel anything.

Here's a link to what they look like:
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/jellyfish-NC.jpg

[Teresa_Rae]

There's another type of jellyfish, I don't know what they're called, but you'll see them by the hundreds. They're a lot smaller and not as intricate as the moon jellies. I guess I'd say that they're more tube-like than the moon jellies. The most we ever saw them was on our first couple trips 9-10 years ago. We would just swim through them and they wouldn't bother us.

We didn't start seeing moon jellies until the last couple years.

[EagleRayLover]

Steve got stung but had his rash guard on so it wasn't too bad. He was real careful to rinse it really well though as he wanted to make sure none of the toxin was left in the fabric.

[suzyq51]

EagleRayLover, where were you when Steve got stung? We are on island now and I want to avoid all jellyfish if possible! We were at Francis Bay yesterday afternoon and didn't see any there.