Bright blue creatures with a painful sting are washing up on these MS Coast beaches

The creatures are turning up every few feet on some Mississippi Coast beaches, bright-blue but dangerous to the touch.

“They’re all along the beach,” Sammy McCardle, a sandbeach foreman in Hancock County, said of the jellyfish-like creatures called Portuguese men-of-war that have been spotted across the region. “They’re just scattered out along the beachline,” he said.

Residents and beach officials are reporting new sightings of the alluring but hazardous creature that sometimes washes up on beaches across the country. McCardle said they have been spotted in Bay St. Louis and Waveland this week. There were also dozens by the shore in Pass Christian on Wednesday morning.

Unlike jellyfish, a Portuguese man-of-war is made up of several organisms. Like jellyfish, they pack painful stings and venom that paralyzes small fish and crustaceans.

The stings are not deadly to people. But the man-of-war is dangerous partly because it can sting even after lying on a beach for weeks. Scientists say the creatures appear mostly in tropical seas, pushed by winds and ocean currents. They sometime float in packs of over a thousand.

In Hancock County, sightings appear clustered in Waveland and have also been reported in Bay St. Louis, according to McCardle. In Harrison County, officials have spotted them only in Pass Christian and Long Beach, public information officer Valerie DeMatties said.

McCardle said he could not remember ever seeing a man-of-war appear on Hancock County’s beaches. It is unclear when, if ever, they have been reported on the Mississippi Coast, but Orange Beach reported sightings in 2019. Men-of-war also infested beaches near Destin, Florida, and along 30A last year. DeMatties said sea life washing ashore in Harrison County is common.

McCardle said no stings had been reported in Hancock County, and that officials would send a beach cleaner to clear the creatures. Officials in Harrison County planned to clean the beaches by Wednesday or Thursday, DeMatties said.

Man-of-war stings cause painful burns and swollen red lash marks that sometimes blister. Marine scientists say anyone who is stung should remove the man-of-war’s tentacles with a towel to avoid touching them, rinse skin with water for 20 minutes and use a hot towel to soothe the pain. They also recommend applying hydrocortisone cream or ointment.

After similar man-of-war sightings in South Florida last December, scientists guessed the creatures may have floated in because of a shift in trade winds, currents or a winter storm. It was not immediately clear why the men-of-war floated in from the Mississippi Sound this week, or how many had arrived on local beaches.

“It’s not a big number,” McCardle said. “But there’s quite a few of them.”