Large pile of jellyfish seen on Tybee Island no cause for concern, according to DNR

TYBEE ISLAND, Ga. (WTOC) - If you were on Tybee Island this weekend you may have seen a large number of jellyfish washed up on shore. As crazy as the sight is to see, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources says this is a common occurrence.

Pictures on social media showed hundreds of jellyfish in big clumps along some areas of the beach, but DNR says there’s no need to fear them.

This was an unusual sight for some who were walking along the beach this weekend. Tyler Jones is a spokesperson for the Coastal Resource Division of the Georgia DNR and says Tybee wasn’t the only place that saw these jellyfish wash up though, they were spotted on Jekyll Island and St. Simons Island as well.

They’re called Cannonball Jellyfish and they’re completely harmless. However, Jones says there could be other kinds of jellyfish in these big clumps, so he encourages people not to kick around in them.

Jones says this wash up does happen every year.

“They don’t even have the ability to swim, so basically what happened is they got washed up on shore with the current and the very strong easterly wind we had last week. They strand themselves on the beach where most of them will die. They’ll be food for other animals and gradually over time they will kind of desiccate or dry up and they’ll be carried back out to see eventually, those that are not eaten by birds and things like that,” Jones said.

Jones says it is hard to tell how long it takes for the ones that don’t get eaten to get washed back out into the water. This all depends on the tides and weather.

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