Worms on the beach!
The Downashore team reports throughout the summer on the latest news, information and musings from up and down the coast.
Worms on the beach!
Wow, I thought I'd seen everything at the beach in Jersey. But today, wow, worms! At the shore! And I'm not talking about those slimy politicians in Deal. I'm talking actual worms, red, juicy worms, washing up in your ocean onto your beach. Comme ca:
That's a closeup of one such sucker in the sand in Ventnor. The beach patrol guys said not to worry, they are clam worms, and they are your basic bottom of the ocean food chain, bait for schools of blue fish and the like, washed up to shore by all the churning of the seas, the same churning that brought all that slimy seaweed and smelly mussels that were bumming every one out. The lifeguards said they are not harmful, except that we should maybe watch out for the schools of fish that are coming after them, make sure we don't get zapped by some fins or bit by some hungry fish. Ok.
Here are kids playing in the piles of mussels! Isn't Jersey fun?
Anyway, mussels a la Ventnor is an old story. The mussels wash up, they dry off, they start to stink. We get it. But the worms, that was freaking everyone out. At least the water was warm though. Definitely in the low to mid 70s. But slimey. Here's another picture of the worm tracks left on the beach.
And, because this is just so gross, here's another picture of the worms swimming around in the ocean as it washed into shore. Again, no health hazard, says the beach patrol. Just another reminder, that this is an ocean, people. But still. Worms!
And, just for fun, here's a picture of a human kind of slug I found slogging around the Margate beach, under the fishing pier. And drying his laundry to boot. Nice, dude.
Update on Sunday: Water was much much clearer today, and still nice and warm. The stray skate had washed up on shore, drawing some gawkers, but mostly, it was busines as usual.
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Did anyone happen to experience the seaweed that came on sunday? The water was heavenly but I felt like I was swimming in spaghetti!— andiehope
LJL - whats it like to be so fragile? Must be scary.— gho_matt- Comment removed.
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- Though I dont go to Jersey Shore, I would have to agree with tfarnath. The jersey beaches are fine. I remember the pertoleum smell in CA and the sand was dirty as well. But all in all, I prefer NC or SC.— jackryan823
- LJL - If NJ is so bad, why don't you stay in your state rather than crowding up the roads every summer? D*****bag— hufnell02
- Key West isn't bad if you go to the state park instead of the south side of the island.— IanG
- The Ocean, thankfully isn't a contrived cruise line adventure, or Disney land, or even a lake, it's it's the mother of all life ,some of it happened to wash up, not really that unusual. Most of the world's biomass is in the world's oceans, occasionally it washes ashore. If the average person ever saw what is swimming/crawling/floating around out there, they would be amazed, and depending on their head, one never put a toe in the ocean again, or would immediately grab their snorkel gear to be able to see more of it. The ocean off of NJ is cleaner than it's been in 50 years, and the NJ beaches are some of the best in the US..I spent my weekend by and in the ocean, diving Saturday, ocean kayaking off the beach yesterday, intend to do the same next weekend.— diverjm
- Those worms are great in a garlic sauce.— Green man
- Tell Mayor Vaughan to close the beaches! We need to call Matt Hooper at the Oceanographic Institute about this.— JimmyCaan
- Do the red worms have to stay in between the two green flags just like the people do?? I HATE Jersey beaches...they're nassy.— derek77
- and people wonder why they're called "shoobies"??— candyman
Inquirer Staff Writer Jacqueline L. Urgo has spent every summer of her life at the Jersey Shore, and has lived there year-round for nearly 30 years, even fulfilling one of her bucket list dreams by once living in a house by the sea.
Since 1990, she has covered the waterfront for The Inquirer — from the Atlantic to the Delaware Bay shore — and some of the mainland in between. Along the way, she amassed an encyclopedic knowledge of this tear-it-down-and-build-it-back-up region, delving into the history and the hype of a place with a lot of unexpected stories to tell. Email her here: jurgo@phillynews.com.
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All blog items posted before Feb. 1, 2009, can be accessed at http://blogs.phillynews.com/philly/downashore
