Snorkeling - Jelly fish??????

I have never snorkeled before and I am a little nervous about it - but I am especially worried about jelly fish. Is this anything I need to worry about - or am I just uptight for nothing?

Snorkeling - Jelly fish??????

Have you been watching Discovery Channel shows about Australia%26#39;s killer jellyfish?

If you wear a wetsuit -- not a bad idea considering the water temp right now -- you won%26#39;t really have to worry about jellyfish stings.

I haven%26#39;t seen or heard any recent reports of Portugese Man o%26#39; War, but if you see a little blue air sac floating on the surface, you want to stay very, very, far away from it. (They%26#39;re actually colonies of critters, not jellyfish, but they hurt like a mother and I assume that%26#39;s your concern.)

Snorkeling - Jelly fish??????

It%26#39;s nothing to stress over. The previous poster was correct. And when we get days of hard east winds we get the man-o-war from far out in the Atlantic. I haven%26#39;t seen any for about a month now. They are easy to spot and easy to get away from. Don%26#39;t worry about it. I have never had a problem with them and we swim and snorkle all the time.

Funny day, I am in disagreement with both water posts. (The other one was about bacteria in the water.) There ARE a bunch of Portuguese Man-O-Wars out there right now. I have been seeing them regularly for about two weeks to a month. It%26#39;s that time of the year. And wind direction matters. When it%26#39;s from the South they sweep in. They are small - quarter sized to ziploc quart sized - iridescent BLUE ';bags'; that are easily spotted on the surface of the water.

Now, I have NOT heard of stings recently. For one, because all the crews of all the snorkel trips are trained to spot them. (I spend most my time inside ';the lakes'; of the Marine Wildlife Refuge, behind the safety of the barrier islands.)

That said, one day they%26#39;ll be here, then the wind changes and they%26#39;re gone. Whatmore, they are one of the few jellyfish that cause problems around here. Lasly, they are relatively uncommon.

Now as for jellyfish stings, they aren%26#39;t so bad as stings go. Yes, they burn, I found a stingray to be far ';worse'; (not that I was so upset by that either, I was just excited to have got that off my list - it was really incredible, actually!)

Treat a jellyfish sting with vinegar and antihistimines and WARM (NOT COLD) water, the warmer the better. Warm water ';breaks down'; the poisons.

And I have seen five-year old kids suffer through a Man-O-War pretty well, so it isn%26#39;t something that a full-grown adult should have too much problem with.

Incidentally, the Discovery Channel is worse than the Weather Channel when it comes to playing up ';the drama.'; Use Google for the facts. That%26#39;s what I always tell kids who quote the CD as ';a source.'; Use Google for the facts.

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