Scores of jellyfish wash up on Pacifica State Beach

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Wednesday, May 30, 2018
Flood of jellyfish wash up on Pacifica State Beach
Jellyfish lined up shoulder to squishy shoulder along Pacifica State Beach Tuesday, and the exact cause is a bit of a mystery.

PACIFICA, Calif. (KGO) -- Scores of jellyfish lined up shoulder to squishy shoulder along Pacifica State Beach Tuesday, and the exact cause is a bit of a mystery.

The Jellyfish, known as Scriptsia-Pacifica, are known to wash up in late spring and early summer. But, even long time surfers say the numbers this year are extraordinary.

"You can definitely feel them in the water. Every time I paddled I could feel a little jelly roll, sort of roll through my finders," surfer Kelley DeVanathan said.

The Jellyfish are native to much of the West Coast.

But experts at the California Academy of Sciences say the beaching appears to be a Bay Area phenomenon.

The good news for surfers and beachgoers-they're not known to sting.

"Some of them are alive; there were a lot more living like earlier last week. But there's definitely a bunch of them all washed ashore dead," surfer J.D. Bates said.

The Academy of Sciences says citizen scientists are uploading information about the jellyfish using an app called iNaturalist. Click here for more information.

Written and produced by Tim Didion.