Weather and jellyfish affect Labor Day weekend beach trips

WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH, NC (WWAY) — We checked in with Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue, as they increased patrols for the Labor Day weekend. And weather and jellyfish are affecting this last holiday weekend of the summer.

Sunday was a gloomy day at the beach but for Begonia and Maria Arias, visiting from Raleigh, it was still a good day.

“It’s our first time at Wrightsville Beach actually and it’s really cool,” said Maria Arias.

She said she doesn’t mind the overcast skies.

“It’s not going to stop us from coming and enjoying our last weekend of summer,” said Arias.

Jeremy Owens, ocean rescue captain, said he noticed more people on the beach Saturday when the weather was nicer, but Sunday’s beach crowd was still pretty good despite the overcast skies and spurts of rain.

Owens said while visitors try to soak up as much sun and fun as possible,  the Wrightsville Beach Ocean Rescue crew is keeping a close watch. He said this weekend so far they have had to handle a traumatic leg injury, a missing child and a couple jellyfish stings.

“The jellyfish that are out here right now are sea wasp or box jellyfish, they’re clear, so it’s not the cabbage heads you usually see, so you’ll not see them but when you’re stung by them you’ll know because it’s extremely painful,” said Owens.

Owens said they have seen a reduction in jellyfish stings reported to them. But he says a couple weeks ago it was a whole different story.

“We had a bunch of jellyfish we were seeing upwards to a dozen stings a day but this past week they’ve really backed off a little yesterday we saw about three stings and with this many people on the beach isn’t bad at all,” said Owens.

Owens said while they haven’t seen too much activity so far this weekend, they are ready for the actual Labor Day holiday.