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Jelly Fish
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Out of curiosity, I wonder who has encountered jelly fish in Kona.

I read that Daniela Ryf was stung and considered quitting (before going on to win).
As the warming waters are producing huge (yuuuge?) blooms around the world.
Is this a worry in Kona? As there appears to be jelly fish there already.
Last edited by: michael Hatch: Jan 19, 19 14:51
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Re: Jelly Fish [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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https://www.to-hawaii.com/jellyfishcalendar.html
I believe jellies move on the moon cycle.

Proud member of FISHTWITCH: doing a bit more than fish exercise now.
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Re: Jelly Fish [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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You might find this calendar helpful: https://www.to-hawaii.com/jellyfishcalendar.html

Although as noted they don’t always stick to the schedule.

Ian
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Re: Jelly Fish [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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I researched jellies as an undergrad. A real "bloom" is like what you see in finding nemo - do a Google Image search and you'll see what I mean. A true bloom is a confluence of multiple factors, mainly warmer temperature and food (plankton) availabilitywhich triggers congregation to one place, and growth. Jellies are very good at turning their food into growth, and fast. Many species use the lunar cycle when it comes to timing reproductive events, like how corals do, not necessarily feeding.

Jellies are common around the world oceans, just because daniela got stung it doesn't mean jellies are taking over, or going to take over, kona. In general, tropical waters are not the most plankton-rich (proven by how clear the water is - there's not much microscopic life there compared to more plankton-rich waters), so from that standpoint, intense blooms would be limited aside from the lunar-related spawning events, which would probably be at night anyway.

It's the ocean. Things live in it. Lots of em.

Jellyfish blooms are a real problem facing various parts of the worlds oceans, but there's plenty of misinformation out there, just like there is with sharks.
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Re: Jelly Fish [PBT_2009] [ In reply to ]
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The question really wasn't why are there more jellyfish. That's a statistic.
It's really, since Daniela was stung in last years race, is there a problem in Kona?
Or was that an anomaly.
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Re: Jelly Fish [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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my bad, I read the OP to mean you were concerned about the potential for blooms.

i don't think it can be said for certainty whether there are more jellies. you're making an assumption that overall jellyfish abundance has increased since one person experienced a sting. coming in contact with a jelly in the ocean isn't an anomaly. i guess i don't get your question.

daniela is one person - albeit a badass and one of the alltime greats - but still just one person. unless hundreds of others had similar problems with stings, i don't think this should be classified as an anomaly.
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Re: Jelly Fish [PBT_2009] [ In reply to ]
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I was looking to see if any others were stung.
From my experience, like cockroaches, where there is one, there's a hundreds more.
These are not solitary animals. So not sure about the misunderstanding.
She got stung...is it a problem?

Call me a wussy, if you like, but I'm not into getting stung on land or sea.
Not when I would have to put up with it for a long, long time.
Way longer than Daniela.
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Re: Jelly Fish [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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A bunch of us got stung by younger jellyfish (2-3 ft long) either during the swim warmup or while racing IMMD in 2017. Maryland had unusually warm climate throughout the year -especially earlier in the year which also caused all of the cherry blossom trees to bloom one month too early. I got stung in the face during the race. It stings but it won’t stop your swim. The pain fades. It is not a show stopper. The sting popped up sporadically throughout the race but honestly there are so many other things you worry about. You will endure other pains that will make you forget about it. After experiencing it, It wouldn’t even be a concern on my radar pre-race. If it happens, it would just make for a fun dramatic IM story later.
Last edited by: Trigirl357: Jan 20, 19 1:10
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Re: Jelly Fish [Trigirl357] [ In reply to ]
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Depends, the severity of jellyfish stings can vary quite a bit depending on both the type of jelly and the victim. I got stung on the arm a couple of months back during a group training swim, the initial burn faded pretty quickly, I was able to finish the swim and by the time I got home and put some sting relief cream on it it had already faded to something not much worse than a nettle rash. It was completely gone in a few days. A friend got stung in the same swim and was in a much worse state. Stopped straight away, put vinegar and then sting relief on it, but it swelled right up and he still had pretty bad marks several weeks later. To be honest, at first I thought he just needed to HTFU, but when I saw the marks I realised he'd had a totally different reaction to mine.
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Re: Jelly Fish [michael Hatch] [ In reply to ]
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michael Hatch wrote:
I was looking to see if any others were stung.
From my experience, like cockroaches, where there is one, there's a hundreds more.
These are not solitary animals. So not sure about the misunderstanding.
She got stung...is it a problem?

Call me a wussy, if you like, but I'm not into getting stung on land or sea.
Not when I would have to put up with it for a long, long time.
Way longer than Daniela.

the researcher in me can't resist saying - that's not necessarily true. depends on where you are and the species of jelly. not discounting your experience, because what you say does happen, at times there can be larger numbers of individuals in one spot. but it wouldn't be uncommon, with many species, to encounter a lone individual either.

you're not a wussy in the slightest for not wanting to be stung by things! i don't want to be either! that's not at all what i was saying - since i know a lot about these animals i felt compelled to share some knowledge since there are lots of misconceptions about them, same as many marine animals.

the above post regarding differing reactions to stings is a good one and important to remember. with daniela, another quirk could have been how she came in contact with the animal. tentacles generally have stinging cells throughout their length. instead of just having a body part graze a tentacle, the tentacle could have wrapped around a limb or gotten in her swimskin, causing prolonged contact wither her skin and a higher number of stinging cells to fire, thus exacerbating the effects of the sting. that wouldn't be typical, but again just a factor in why the sting could have affected her so.
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