RYE, N.H.- Five swimmers at Wallis Sands Beach were rushed to Portsmouth Regional hospital earlier today after a 50 pound jellyfish attacked over 100 people in the water. The attack happened while the jellyfish was dead, due to its tentacles that reached 100 feet in length.  

Although there were no serious injuries, many came flooding out of the water in fear and pain of what just happened. This led many to being treated in the beaches bathhouse. Soon after, Rye closed its beach as six surrounding towns responded to the emergency in order to fish the jelly out of the water with a pitchfork. “It was as big as a turkey platter,” Ken Loughlin, manager of the park explains. “I’ve never seen such a thing.”

When talking to Robert Royer, an aquarist at the Seacoast Science Center, he discloses that the creature was most likely a lion’s mane jellyfish. He says that such jellyfish are common in New England Waters and can in fact sting while dead, due to the fact that their tentacles have barbs.

Alysia Bennett of Hampstead, N.H. was disappointed with this day that was meant to be spent relaxing on the beach with her three young children. All of her children simultaneously came screaming out of the water, complaining of the attack. “They were terrified,” she says.

The beach will re-open as soon as the incident has been taken care of. As common as it may be, it does not seem likely that a jellyfish of that size will cause the same tragedy again. “That’s the largest we have around here,” Royer exclaims. “I’ve never heard of them getting 50 pounds.”