Jellyfish

* Your July 4 article states that jellyfish have been almost nonexistent along local beaches for the past quarter-century and that many people have never seen them before. When I was a kid in the 1950s, my family went to Doheny and San Clemente beaches in the summer, and I remember that back then it was very common to see the beach strewn with jellyfish, some of them rather large. You could hardly walk 20 feet without running into one. I also remember the screams of a girl who had been stung by one at San Clemente Beach as she was taken out of the water.

People I’ve talked to about this who have been to these beaches in more recent years have no memory of the jellyfish that were so common many years ago.

GEORGE IZAGUIRRE

Claremont