DRIED JELLY-FISH

 

 

UPDATED:  August 1, 2001

 Coast Guard in Philadelphia: Pieces of what was thought to be jellyfish were analyzed by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA)in the fall of 2000 and also by Dr. James Powlik, Biological Oceanographer. It was determined that the many pieces that were turned in by residents of Sussex County Delaware to the Coast Guard Station at Indian River Inlet, Delaware, were analyzed to be a shredded plastic material, non-harmful. Keep in mind that the material was adhesive on one side and stuck to people when in the water. People all summer long on the Delaware beaches were complaining about so many pieces of jellyfish in the water.

 A Dept. of Natural Resources employee was quoted as saying after observing two 600 ft red patches of water off of Rehoboth Beach, DE  "it looks like zillion of pieces of jellyfish, but we don't know what it is". The Indian River Coast Guard report stated "appears to be a slush type material/product with numerous jellyfish swimming in each"(each 600 ft long glob of red water).

     The “pieces of jellyfish” that people kept complaining about most of the summer of 2000, were washing ashore from Lewes Beach on the Delaware Bay all the way south, 23 miles to Fenwick Island, Delaware.  Samples were collected by several people and given to the Coast Guard Station at Indian River Inlet.  From there the bags of the pieces of jellyfish were turned over to the C.G. Station in Lewes, Marine Safety Division.

    I had called the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) in September 2000, and told them about the stuff washing ashore.  The investigator told me that they had no jurisdiction, that the Coast Guard had to invite NOAA Hazmat  into the area for an investigation to begin.

   Evidently, the Coast Guard did invite the NOAA Hazmat  investigator in since NOAA did do an analysis on the pieces of jellyfish.  Analysis by NOAA and by Dr. James Powlik, author of “Sea Change”, can be seen in the text below.

    These pieces were adhesive on one side and stuck to whoever it hit when in the water. One of my son’s friends, a surfer,  was hit by so many, he had “red marks” all over him. By the next day he was sick and had to go to the doctor. The surfer is a former Coastguardsman and has surf in several places around the world. He said that he has never seen “jellyfish” that looked like the things that were sticking to him.

   They, the pieces of jellyfish, even fooled a Coastguardsman as it did millions of other people.  Winkfiles was not fooled, although, trying to prove otherwise has taken almost a year, without the help of the Surfrider Foundation that knew about the “pieces of jellyfish” and whose help I asked for several times, to no avail.