Waders, Watch Your Step; You May Get Stung

A trip to the beach in August can be filled with hassles. Like remembering to pack the suntan lotion and volleyball. Fighting traffic on the freeway and in the beach parking lot. And high-stepping across hot sand to find a choice sunbathing spot.

Even if you’ve overcome all those obstacles, there are still a couple of things to worry about when you finally reach the water: namely, stingrays and jellyfish.

“Those are really our main sources of injuries due to animals,” said John Schooler, a Del Mar lifeguard.

August, with its warmed ocean drawing the fish to shallow water and its hot temperatures drawing bathers to the same spot, is prime time for jellyfish and stingray mishaps.

The number of reported stings is down this year from last, but the more harmful stingray incidents are more common this year, apparently because jellyfish populations are down.

Knowing more about these marine animals might make a trip to the beach a little less painful, lifeguards say.

A stingray leaves a puncture wound in the victim’s flesh after injecting a protein poison into the body, said Robert Snodgrass, associate aquarium curator at Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

The barbs are covered with a bacteria-carrying mucus in addition to the poison, and sometimes they break off inside the victim, the way a bee’s stinger does, Snodgrass said.

“Not only is it toxic, but it’s liable to cause infection,” Snodgrass said.

In addition to pain and swelling, stings can cause sweating, rapid heartbeat, diarrhea, muscular paralysis and a drop in blood pressure, Snodgrass said. The sting is unlikely to be fatal, but medical attention is advised.

Rays frequent shallow water near beaches for many of the same reasons tourists do, said Andy O’Leary, director of marine safety for the city of Solana Beach.

“Stingrays like to burrow, they like to sun themselves,” O’Leary said. “The flat, sandy beaches are the most affected. And people go where there’s sand.”

A stingray will often hide under a light covering of sand, waiting for its favorite food--the sand crab--to scuttle along, Snodgrass said.

Usually, a wader will step directly on top of a stingray, and the ray’s natural reflex is to whip its tail into the offending foot or ankle, Schooler said.

Lifeguards at most area beaches treat from one to three stingray stings a week, but O’Leary said Solana Beach lifeguards usually see a sting a day.

“Solana Beach consistently has the warmest water in the county,” O’Leary said.

On the other hand, jellyfish can give waders a burning, itching rash that makes a case of sunburn seem mild by comparison. Jellyfish have nematocyst cells, each of which contains a tiny barb and spring mechanism, Snodgrass said.

“When the animal is contacted, the cells are released,” Snodgrass said. “They’re like tiny arrows.”

Jellyfish stings are usually less severe than stingray wounds.

“Most people don’t even realize what has happened until later,” said Rodney Ferrif, an Oceanside lifeguard. “They’ll come up to the tower and say, ‘My skin is itching and I don’t know why.’ ”

The area might become swollen and irritated, but seldom requires a doctor’s care.

Although jellyfish were out in force last summer, lifeguards report far fewer this year.

For example, Del Mar lifeguards counted 43 jellyfish stings during July, 1989, but only two last month, Schooler said.

At San Elijo State Beach, lifeguards treated 10 to 30 jellyfish stings a day last summer and only about one a week this summer, said lifeguard Peter Ackhoff.

Judging when and where jellyfish will appear isn’t easy, since they tend to go with the flow.

“Jellyfish pretty much just drift with the currents,” Snodgrass said.