NIWA’s marine invertebrate systematist Dr Rachael Peart says tiny crustaceans, often referred to as ‘sea lice’, could also be one cause of the rashes. Photo Rachael Peart NIWA

It’s the bane of summer swims, and word quickly gets round when the ‘sea lice’ arrive, usually aligning with the warm summer weather and balmy ocean temperatures that draw us all to the beach in the first place. 

And it seems the critters have now arrived to put a sting in the tail of our late summer swims, with Safeswim recently flagging several Waiheke beaches as at risk of causing ‘sea bather’s eruption’.

NIWA marine invertebrate systematist Dr Rachael Peart says they can’t definitively identify what is causing the rashes. “The most common culprits are a number of different jellyfish and related jelly-like animals.” They include thimble jellyfish and string jellyfish, sometimes referred to as the ‘long stringy stingy thingy’, which often appear when drift seaweed is present. 

• Silvia Massa

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