By Sid Perkins
Weather forecasters usually prognosticate precipitation, pollen, and poor air quality. Soon, in some areas, they could provide beachgoers with the probability of confronting a jellyfish.
True to its common name, the East Coast sea nettle, Chrysaora quinquecirrha, lives along the United States’ eastern shore and plagues swimmers with painful welts. Although the creature’s found from Cape Cod to the Caribbean, it particularly afflicts the brackish waters of the Chesapeake Bay, says Mary Beth Decker, a marine ecologist at Yale University. The polyp form of the jellyfish lives in the bay’s shallows during the winter. But from May through August, buds the size of a BB break off the polyps and rapidly grow into sea nettles that can reach the size of a dinner plate. Besides ruining a day at the beach, sea nettles prey on fish eggs, fingerlings, and small crustaceans.