Bluebottle jellyfish stung more than 5,000 people on Queensland's Gold and Sunshine coasts in Australia over the weekend. Four major beaches were closed for swimming as poisonous jellyfish continued to sweep upto shores. Over 100 injured people at the Sunshine Coast were treated for severe injuries from stings.

22,282 people sought treatment for bluebottle stings between 1 December and 7 January across Queensland. While it was just 6,831 in the same period last year. On Sunday, 476 bluebottle stings were treated on the Gold Coast and 461 on the Sunshine Coast. Parademics and lifesavers treated thousands of people in which many had suffered anaphylactic shock. Blue Bottle Jellyfish Stings More Than 50 Tourists on Mumbai's Aksa and Girgaum Beaches.

While bluebottle stings are quite among beachgoers in Australia, the increase in the number of people being stung has gone up steadily in the past few days. Strong onshore winds from the north-east have increased the number of these venomous jellyfish found in the water near the beach. While the scenario has improved, remnants of the bluebottles armada were still found at the beaches.

Those affected are generally treated by rinsing the wound with water at 45 degrees Celsius or using ice packs. Stings from box jellyfish, that can be smaller than a fingernail can cause severe muscular pain, vomiting, strokes, heart failure, severe uneasiness and even death within minutes. Dr Lisa-Ann Gershwin, a jellyfish expert from Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Services, said that such gathering of jellyfish in large is not quite unusual and mostly due to the winds.

Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Service director Lisa-ann Gershwin reportedly said, "When you look at a bluebottle, and you see the bubble and the blue fringes and the long blue tentacles, that is actually a colony, that is not an individual. Those colonies also live in these armadas – sort of a population of the colonies – in the middle of the open ocean.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 07, 2019 03:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).