A few days ago, the RCIP closed Stingray Sandbar due to a couple people being stung by jellyfish and one person getting 'pierced' by a stingray's barb. The next day, under the sensationalistic headlines, they quoted someone in the RCIP as saying a couple people were stung by thimble jellyfish. THIMBLE JELLYFISH.

Thimble jellyfish are... let's see... THE SIZE OF A THIMBLE. THAT'S WHY THEY'RE CALLED THIMBLE JELLYFISH. Their nematocysts are tiny and don't really even sting anyone our size. There are other bits and pieces, jelly junk as we refer to them that are pretty much invisible and DO sting.

The problem with thimble jellies is their larvae. Usually between Mother's Day and Father's Day is their mating period. The larvae, microscopic larvae I might add, float around in the water and end up on your skin. As your skin dries, they panic and burrow down into your epidermis where it's warm and moist. Your skin does not like it so it gets red, itchy, swollen, itchy and did I mention itchy? It itches like the DEVIL IS INSIDE YOUR SKIN TRYING TO GET OUT. It lasts for three or four days and then clears up and goes away. This is what's known as sea-itch, sea lice or seabather's eruption

Some people do have more adverse reactions. Gordy got a pretty good dosing of it  few years back and his eyes swelled up and stuff, but a good course of antihistamine's cleared him up as right as rain. I suppose if you're allergic to bee stings or things like that, you might have a reaction like Gordy's.

As for closing Stingray Sandbar, it HAS been a little rough out there lately with higher-than-normal winds making things rough and choppy. Someone did get "stung" by a stingray the other day, and the description about that was that the stingray was "thrown" into the person by the wave action and got scared. If the conditions were rough, then close the area down, but to say they closed it down because of a couple people getting stung by thimble jellies and one person getting stung by a stingray... while other boats were not affected by the closure when they were snorkeling at the barrier reef just a quarter mile away is a boatload of bullshit.