COCOA BEACH, Fla. — They swarmed the beach, taking control of prime holiday sand and surf like a group of marauding spring breakers. Then, just like that, they vanished, leaving behind the damage: spoiled vacations, red welts, heaps of annoyance, discarded containers of vinegar and Benadryl and a crew of exhausted lifeguards.
A flotilla of mauve stingers, a kind of jellyfish that summers mostly in the Mediterranean, staked a claim on 10 miles of beach here and stayed through Memorial Day weekend, finally pulling out of town on Wednesday. The stingers — reddish and small, some no bigger than a golf ball — coated just about every inch of these beaches, sending a steady stream of screeching beachgoers to the lifeguard stations, despite warnings to steer clear. Lifeguards treated 1,800 people for jellyfish stings last week. A few were sent to hospitals after suffering allergic reactions.
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Author:LIZETTE ALVAREZ
