Mailbag: jellyfish, why the water changes color, and the roped-off patch of sand
The questions pick up the second the water warms, so here’s the early-summer batch. Email or submit through the site and we’ll get to yours.
Q: My kid got stung in the shallows last week and there was a purple flag up. What stung him and what were we supposed to do?
Purple flag means dangerous marine life, and at this time of year that almost always means jellyfish — sometimes the regular moon jellies, occasionally something with more of a kick. The thing people forget is that a purple flag is its own warning, separate from the surf flags; you can have a calm green-surf day and a purple flag at the same time, which is exactly the combination that catches families off guard.
For a standard jelly sting: rinse with salt water (not fresh — fresh water can make undischarged stingers fire), lift off any tentacle bits with the edge of a card rather than your bare hand, and the sting usually settles in an hour or so. The vinegar question is genuinely debated and depends on what stung you, so the lifeguards are your best on-the-spot call. If you ever see a balloon-like blue float on the sand or water — that’s a man-o-war, that’s a different and worse sting, and that’s a “get out and find a lifeguard” situation, not a tough-it-out one. When the purple flag’s up, keep the little kids in ankle-deep and you’ll mostly avoid the whole thing.
Q: Why is the water emerald and gorgeous one day and brownish and stirred-up the next? Is something wrong with it?
Nothing’s wrong with it — you’re just watching weather. That famous green-to-turquoise Gulf color shows up on calm days when the surf lays down and the fine quartz sand settles to the bottom. Add a few days of onshore wind and building surf and that same sand gets churned back up into the water column, and suddenly it’s the color of sweet tea. Heavy rain pushing runoff out of the bays and rivers can do it too. It’s temporary, it’s natural, and it flips back the next time the Gulf glasses off. So no — murky water is not dirty water or a pollution event, it’s just a windy week. (If you want to know whether it’s a red tide situation, which is a real and different thing, we track that on Beach Today.)
Q: There’s a roped-off patch of sand near our rental with stakes and tape and a little sign. What is it and are we in trouble if the kids ran near it?
You’re not in trouble, but you found a sea turtle nest, and now you’re one of its neighbors for the summer. Nesting season runs spring into fall, and when a nest is found it gets marked off and monitored — that tape is the whole protection plan. Don’t dig near it, don’t let the dog at it, and fill in any big holes the kids dig elsewhere on the beach before you leave (hatchlings and even adult turtles get trapped in them). The bigger ask is lights: at night, turn off or shield any lights facing the beach, because artificial light disorients hatchlings that are trying to find the water by the natural glow of the horizon. The full set of rules, plus the FL and AL rescue hotlines if you ever find a turtle in trouble, is on our sea turtle page. Having a nest near your rental is a genuinely cool thing — treat it well and you might catch the cordon come down after a hatch.
Submit more. We do this monthly, and the summer questions are the best ones.
— Kathy