Millions of jellyfish drawing crowds

Deepa Bharath

Translucent jellyfish swimming by the docks near waterside

restaurants are attracting a number of customers to the water,

cameras in hand.

The waters near Bluewater Grill have seen a large school of these

creatures over the last four or five days, said Karen Terrin, a

bookkeeper at the restaurant.

“You can literally reach down and touch them,” she said. “There

are millions of them in the morning during high tide. It’s quite a

fascinating thing to look at.”

These jellyfish don’t appear every year, Terrin said.

“The last time I remember seeing them in this large a number was

probably two or three years ago,” she said. “They just keep getting

thicker and thicker every day.”

The restaurant’s customers are heading toward the two docks to

catch glimpses of the fish, Terrin said.

“A lot of them are coming in with cameras and taking pictures,”

she said. “We’re right at the end of the channel here, so maybe we’re

seeing more of the jellyfish.”

Employees at the Cannery seafood restaurant said they could see a

lot of the jellyfish only in the morning.

“I’ve heard about the jellyfish,” said Lauren Willingham, a

hostess at the restaurant. “And I do see about a thousand of them in

the water right now. Our customers usually don’t go out and see them,

but I think people who come out here on their boats like to look at

them.”

The whitish, translucent jellyfish are a common sight in the bay,

said Steve Escobar, who fishes for lobster and crabs.

“They live there all the time,” he said. “They seem to congregate

there. You don’t see them in the harbor like that. I don’t believe

that it’s all that uncommon in that area.”

Newport Beach lifeguards also said that the fish are more common

in the backwaters than on the beach.

“We haven’t seen any on the beach here,” Lifeguard Lt. Brent

Jacobsen said. “But they are usually seen swimming in the bay.”