Jellyfish Invade Robert Moses Beach

Today the water temperature at Robert Moses was perfect; the jellyfish thought so too and showed up in droves. Over the course of this summer, I have visited the ocean beaches from Robert Moses to Montauk, and the appearance of jellyfish has gone from occasional sightings to serious density. Today at Robert Moses, we were barely able to get into the water.

Now I’ve seen and heard about jellyfish in the Peconic Bay and in the Long Island Sound over the years. There was much ado about their earlier arrival and denser presence in bay waters this summer. Global warming was the cause they all chimed but then I see that global warming was blamed 10 years ago too.

I personally had not seen any jellyfish in the ocean until this year so up until now I was under the impression that they were strictly bay phenomena. Of course, I was wrong. It turns out that jellyfish have waxed and waned in the ocean over the years and this just happens to be one of those plentiful years. So, we have to be careful but it is not the end of the world.