"I've never seen that many in my 30 years of lifeguarding,

And in my 40 years of growing up around the beach.

We treated hundreds of stings.

At one point, there were miles of beach with no one in the water.

They were so numerous people couldn't avoid them."

A Newport Beach, California Lifeguard

Tens of thousands of them recently came

They were riding on the dreaded Red Tide

An invasion from a deep dark underwater world

From their sting there was now nowhere to hide

They were gathering their vast army

They were now swooping right in

Perhaps they had come to reclaim

The vast ocean realm they reside in

And perhaps this recent jellyfish invasion

Is the result of man’s ravaging of the sea

They are feeding on phytoplankton populations

Caused by pollutants we release so callously

Raw sewage dumped into our oceans

Industrial waste streaming in everyday

Perhaps this recent invasion is a warning

Perhaps mankind should mend our evil ways

Perhaps a new War of the Worlds is beginning

Aquatic Creatures attempting to survive vs. Man

Perhaps we have grossly upset the Balance of Nature

Horrendously violating the once serene very natural plan

©2005, Ed Kostro

Tens of thousands of purplish-black jellyfish invaded Orange County California beaches this week, along with a gigantic red tide of microscopic plankton on which they have been feeding.

"They could come ashore again in Santa Monica Bay or even Ventura in a couple of days. There are literally hundreds of thousands of them out there," said Dennis Kelly, head of the Marine Science Department at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

These invaders have been identified as giant black jellyfish that can grow to have a 3-foot-wide canopy and long spindly tentacles up to 12 feet long.

And this particular species of jellyfish has never appeared in such profusion before.

"I've been doing marine science for 30 years, and this has never happened before, not in these numbers."

This gigantic jellyfish invasion may be due to a combination of factors, Kelly said. The water temperature apparently is perfect for these creatures right now, and they are feasting on a type of plankton that, in turn, feeds on the microscopic plankton of the red tide.

This red tide itself has lasted for five months now, compared to the usual seasonal bloom of about a month.

Kelly said that this phytoplankton may be feeding off raw sewage dumped into the ocean, and on nutrients from urban and rural runoff from coastal cities and farms.

"We've had horrendous runoff this year because of the tremendous rainfall."

These massive phytoplankton blooms caused by industrial and agricultural pollution and raw sewage discharges are also believed by many to be depleting sections of the ocean of needed oxygen, and are probably responsible for the resulting oceanic ‘Dead Zones,’ in which no marine life can survive.

Some scientists even believe that these deep expanding oceanic Dead Zones could be responsible for the rash of shark attacks near shore in recent years.  They believe that many of these sharks had been feeding in much deeper water, but since much of their usual prey has now vanished in these Dead Zones, they have been forced to look for food closer to shore.

Could this truly be the prelude to a gruesome War of the Worlds between mankind and aquatic creatures?

And maybe it truly is time for all of us to start treating earth’s oceans with far more respect – they are the only ones we have – and they cannot be replaced.

Symptoms of Jellyfish Stings:

- severe pain
- headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea
- skin swelling/wounds/redness
- difficulty breathing, swallowing, and talking
- shivering, sweating
- irregular pulse/heart failure