More than 2,500 treated for bluebottle stings on the Gold and Sunshine coasts

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

More than 2,500 people have been treated for bluebottle stings on the Gold and Sunshine coasts in Queensland as jellyfish swarm beaches in record numbers.

Across the weekend, about 2,630 people were stung with several suffering anaphylactic shock and treated by paramedics.

Almost 1,000 people were hurt in a matter of hours on Sunday afternoon, with 476 bluebottle stings treated on the Gold Coast and 461 on the Sunshine Coast.

Surf Life Saving duty officer Jeremy Sturges said it was an “epidemic”.

“I have never seen anything like this – ever,” Sturges said. “Not everyone reacts the same way but there have been very serious reactions.”

Unusually strong north-easterly swell conditions pushed the bluebottles onshore and they are clumped in their thousands along the shoreline.

Lifesavers have been forced to close a number of beaches.

Sturges warned it was not just swimmers at risk with the jellyfish stranded along the tide lines still very much alive.

“People have been hurt as they just walk along the shoreline,” he said. “Don’t pick it up, don’t walk on it or you will be stung.”

Surf Life Saving Queensland said that if stung, remove stingers, take a very hot shower and apply ice.