Updated at 12:49 p.m., Wednesday, August 8, 2007
More than 1,000 jellyfish found on Makaha Beach today
Advertiser Staff
For a second month in a row, beaches in West O'ahu are being inundated with box jellyfish that carry a powerful and sometimes deadly sting.Bryan Cheplic, spokesman for the city Emergency Services Department, said more than 1,000 of the translucent sea creatures had washed up on Makaha Beach as of early this morning.
Another 500 hundred were found along the beach at Pokai Bay.
The South Shore — which includes Waikiki, Ala Moana and Hanauma Bay — had about 400 of the box jellyfish wash ashore, Cheplic said.
"I have no explanation for it," Cheplic said of the unusually high West O'ahu influx.
"We went more than a decade without this happening. Then, last month, about 700 showed up on West O'ahu shores."
He said his office does not have the authority to close the affected beaches.
"But we're telling anybody who doesn't want to get stung to stay out of the water," Cheplic said.
