Damn Jelly fish.

[Snakeman]

I finally got a chance today to go diving at Alabama point. I saw some sea urchins that I was going to get for those folks that wanted them but I wanted to try to catch some fish first. The visiblity wasn't great, 5-10 feet, but it was good enough to catch fish. After about 30 minutes into the dive I started to see a few nasty looking Jelly fish and the longer I stayed the more I started to see. Since the only thing that I forgot to bring today was my diving skin I decide to get out of the water before I ran into one. As I was making my way back to where I could get out of the water I noticed that it got darker with a kinda pink hue. I rose up a few feet and and to my surpise the top few feet of water was completely covered with Jelly fish about 3 inches apart. I swam in every direction trying to find a hole that I could come up in but I couldn't find a single spot. After about 10 minutes of searching for a gap I found one futher out away from were I needed to get out of the water. The jelly fish were spaced out about 2 to 4 feet there. At the Jetties there is only one good area that you can get out of the water with a tank on your back. I made it to the top with out getting one on my face but as soon as I got to the top and inflated my bc they started to get me. I had to swim about 30 feet to get to my exit spot and it was like swiming throught kelp. They completely wrapped my leg and arms up. When I reached the rocks and got my fins off and dragged myself out of the water I looked like a gost buster after being slimed. I had tenticles hanging all over me and my gear. I tried my best to stand on the edge of the jetties and get most of the tenticles off but every time I tried to dip in the water I would wash some off and get some new ones washed on me. So I just packed up and left. Even after getting home and getting a shower I still have some stinging me now as I write this although most of the welts have gone down. All my days of diving I have never seen jelly fish move in that fast and thick. Sorry guys that I wasn't able to get any cool stuff. Maybe I'll have better luck next time. I did meet another diver there that was catching fish for his tanks so I told him about the club so the dive wasn't a total waste. He was lucky because he had a full body wet suit on but he still got stung. He had to use some guys fishing rod to snag his dive flag out of the water thats how bad it was. Keep this in mind if anybodys planning to go to the beach anytime soon. There was an outgoing tide today that might have had someting to do with it. I didn't see a single jellyfish for about the first 20 minutes after I got there. Those slow bastard can move pretty fast. If those jellyfish would have been Man-O-Wars I would probably be dead right now. At least I'll have a good diving story out of it.

[Scott]

That's bad. I have heard divers tell stories of "jellyfish walls" that came through while diving.

[tbmoore]

Looks like to me for the good of the club you would have sucked it up and brought us something back. You know they say NO PAIN NO GAIN. ....Really though glad to hear you made it ok. Those things hurt. I have heard of divers getting stung around the throat to the point where they could not breath....careful there grasshopper..

[Xster]

Glad you made thgrough it okay!

[IndyDiver]

Glad to hear you survived your encounter with those Jelly fish. I have heard of several people who haven't. Just curious if someone can tell me when is the best time of year to avoid the Jelly fish? I was at Dauphin Island in April and there were a lot of them then also.

[Snakeman]

They wasn't as bad today but there was still a good many, usually spring to early sumer. I think they are just bad this year. They make some sun block now that supose to keep them from stinging you. I read a story in the paper about it. They developed it my studing what clown fish us to keep from being stung.