Dangerous jellyfish may come back to Jersey Shore

Imagine swimming at the Jersey Shore and a nasty jellyfish with a searing sting heads your way.

There's little you can do to avoid this poisonous box jellyfish, an exotic species that can out-swim most swimmers.

If you get stung, symptoms include burning pain, swelling skin, blisters and scarring.

Last fall, Shore residents found roughly a half-dozen box jellyfish washed up on beaches in northern Ocean County and spotted another one in the Manasquan River. Box jellyfish, which have boxy shapes and venom-laced tentacles, thrive in warm coastal waters around the world. The Gulf Stream may have carried these animals north and a storm or winds may have steered them toward the Jersey Shore, according to experts.

The extremely rare sightings caused a stir in the world of jellyfish experts, who say it's possible that the jellyfish will be back this year when the water warms up.

It's "earth-shaking what's happened here," said Bud Gillan, who grew up in Ocean Grove and teaches AP/honors biology at Boynton Beach Community High School in Florida. "It's an amazing story."

"We have evidence that box jellies are moving up the coastline," said Gillan, who is also a scientist at the CIEE Research Station on the Caribbean island of Bonaire. "I'd say it's a pretty good bet we'll see them in the summer (in New Jersey). Maybe they're offshore, maybe it is closer."

Story: Dangerous jellyfish found in Manasquan River

Allen G. Collins, a federal jellyfish expert based at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, has cut open and examined one of the New Jersey box jellies. He's quite certain the species is Tamoya haplonema, first described in 1859 by a German naturalist who lived in Brazil.

Haplonema's box is actually a roughly rectangular bell that can grow to about 4 inches long by 2 inches wide. Each of the bell's four corners has a tentacle that can stretch from 4 to 40 inches in length. The transparent bell is covered by small warts, and the tentacles are pale-whitish, according to Collins, a zoologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

He has yet to perform DNA analysis to try to confirm its identity. But Tamoya haplonema has been found as far north in the western Atlantic Ocean as Massachusetts, according to Collins.

Jack Gaynor, an associate professor of biology and molecular biology at Montclair State University in Montclair, has been trying to identify the species and expects to have an answer this month.

Paul Bologna, director of the Marine Biology and Coastal Sciences Program at Montclair State, said "clearly, it is very possible that we see them again next summer." The global rise in the jellyfish population would suggest that increased sightings are possible in the future, he said in an email.

Story: Fear for Barnegat Bay — can it be saved?

Jerry Meaney, a retired emergency medical technician who lives in Point Pleasant, spotted a box jellyfish in the Manasquan River in October. He took photos and video of the strange creature and posted them on his Facebook page: Barnegat Bay Island, NJ, piquing the interest of jellyfish researchers around the world.

Meaney also found a box jellyfish on the beach in Bay Head — it was still moving a little — and drove it to Collins for identification at the Smithsonian.

"It could have been a freak, but you know we're all going to be looking" for more jellyfish, said Meaney, captain of the Point Pleasant Beach First Aid and Emergency Squad. "It will probably be June before the water warms up again to a good temperature."

Leslie Forsberg Pilat, a legal assistant who lives in Point Pleasant, said she saw three box jellyfish on the Bay Head beach last fall.

"They're very large, a lot larger than I thought they were and pinkish in color, very long tentacles, thick tentacles like the size of a pencil," she said.

She placed one in a Ziploc bag, taking care not to touch the animal. She contacted Meaney and talked with Gillan and Bologna. A Montclair State student drove down to take it back for analysis.

"I thought it was really cool," she said. "I was really excited about the whole thing."

But is she worried about taking a dip in the Atlantic now?

It "makes me a little nervous to swim in the ocean, but I'll swim in the ocean anyway," she said.

Todd B. Bates: 732-643-4237; tbates@app.com