Jellyfish, known as “purple meanies,” washed up along the Jersey Shore over the weekend and stung beachgoers. Brothers Jack and George Slager and their friends all said they got stung on Saturday by what experts say are “mauve stingers” at Manasquan’s beach. The boys described the sting as “bumpy and itchy.” “It was starting to get red. I thought it was a rash at first, but it stayed the same amount of pain for a while and noticed it was probably a jellyfish sting because there were hundreds of them,” Jack said. “It was like, really painful,” George said. Bay Head lifeguard Chris Li said they have medical kits to treat stings. “First thing is rinse it off. Some people might be highly allergic, like a bee sting; they would have to get medical attention for that,” Li said. The boys said lifeguards rinsed their rashes and sprayed them with a vinegar concoction. Mom Allison Slager said her pediatrician said there’s no serious concern, but she took George to get checked out anyway. “When I looked at the back of his leg, I could see big bubble blisters had already formed,” she said. Experts say mauve jellyfish are pretty infrequent down the Jersey Shore because they live farther offshore. Montclair State University Professor Paul Bologna said he has been getting reports of them washing up on Ocean and Monmouth County beaches. “It’s not the typical species we see on a regular basis,” he said. Bologna and Li said there are more of these jellyfish due to offshore winds pushing them toward the coast.
