It’s the Big Sting Season on Southland Beaches

It’s that time of year again. Time for body surfing in the waves, sand castles along the shore--and the big sting.

As the warm waters of summer set in along San Diego County’s beaches, more people are being injured by round stingrays.

And along Orange County beaches, a rash of jellyfish stings are being reported.

Huntington Beach lifeguard supervisor Dan Hoffman said jellyfish stings “are up quite a bit from last year.”

Bathers have been stung on the shoulder, chin, foot and just about any other part of the anatomy that can come in contact with the umbrella-shaped sea creature’s tentacles, Hoffman said.

“We’ve had five reported jellyfish stings today,” he said recently. “It’s been happening more and more. The warm water is bringing them in. Some people can be really allergic to them and react to them. It all depends on the person.”

Stingrays have also been spotted recently in Huntington Harbour, Hoffman said. It is easy, he said, for swimmers to confuse the sting of a stingray with that of a jellyfish.

At Pacific Beach in San Diego County, the tally is two or three stingray encounters daily, although Oceanside beaches have had very few this year, lifeguards said.

“Oh, man, we’ve had a lot of them. Last weekend we had quite a few,” said one guard at Silver Strand State Beach in Coronado. “Every day we’ve been having five or six victims. We’ve had three today so far.”

Why the increase in injuries now? Some experts say the rays move closer to shore in search of sex or food. Others note that there are simply more people at the beach in summer. One thing they agree on is how the encounters occur.

Flat as a pancake and about the size of a frying pan, round stingrays flutter along just beneath the sand, waiting for lunch to amble by in the form of a sand crab. Although they usually stay beyond the surf line, at this time of year they can be found in water as shallow as 3 or 4 inches, said Jim Stewart, research diving safety officer for Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

An unlucky wader who steps on a stingray quickly feels the reflex reaction of the creature’s tail, which flips upward, jabbing the intruder with a serrated barb near the tail’s end. The serrations can leave a nasty gash, usually in the foot. A gelatinous sheath surrounding the barb contains venom that enters the wound.

“The pain is really intense. It’s a real tear-jerker,” Stewart said.

Soaking the foot in hot water for about half an hour seems to alter the venom protein so it loses its potency, Stewart said.

He said the stingrays are showing up in shallow water because sand crabs are hatching. Robert Burhans, an official at Scripps Aquarium, noted that the heaviest shoreline concentrations of the rays seem to coincide with their mating in June and birth of the young in September. And Richard Rosenblatt, a fish specialist at Scripps, said he thinks that the rays are there all year but that fewer people are around to encounter them in other seasons.

Shuffle, Don’t Step

Whatever their reason for being there, stingrays are relatively easy to avoid. Waders should shuffle rather than step through the water, Stewart said.

“If you shuffle your feet along, probably you’ll stir them out of the sand,” he said. “Then probably you’ll cut your foot on a broken beer bottle. I’m not sure which is worse.”

Shuffling is doubly important if the beach is relatively deserted, he said. Stingrays do not like people and will keep their distance from a crowded beach.

Summertime is also bringing jellyfish to San Diego’s shores, lifeguards and fish watchers say, but they are less predictable than rays.

Also, a few small great white sharks have been caught by fishermen in the last month off north San Diego County.

But Rosenblatt said swimmers and surfers need not be frightened. He noted that in his nearly three decades at Scripps, every great white shark found in the area has been less than 5 feet long--barely larger than when first born. Scientists speculate that pups are born in warmer waters but move northward as they grow.

Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum contributed to this story.