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The painful sting of the
box jellyfish inspired two of
its victims to figure out how
to predict the creature's invasion

---

By Rod Ohira
Star-Bulletin

They didn't know each other then. But after being stung by box jellyfish in 1990, two Oahu men dedicated themselves to protecting swimmers from the painful experience they encountered.

The efforts of Noble C. "Landy" Blair III and Minoru Yoneshige led to today's advance warnings of monthly box jellyfish invasions, which have reduced a once-major problem to a minor one.

"When we first experienced it (in 1990), the box jellyfish situation was a public-safety crisis," Ocean Safety Division chief Jim Howe said. "A lot of city ambulances were taking people to hospitals.

"You can't measure the prevention aspect because we'll never know how many tens of thousands of people were never treated for stings."

By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Landy Blair holds two box jellyfish found today
on Kuhio Beach. Their bodies are about 4 inches
long and their four tentacles around 24 inches long.
About 80 were found overnight, the ninth day after
the full moon. More are expected to surface tomorrow.

Carybdea alata is the most notable of the three species of box jellyfish here, says Jerry Crow of the Waikiki Aquarium. Its bell is 3-5 inches long, with tentacles up to 10 feet long.

Not much was known about box jellyfish invasions when Blair and Yoneshige were first stung.

Blair, 51, is an Elizabethtown, Ky., native who moved to Hawaii in January 1979, to work as an engineer. He became a city lifeguard in 1991 and continued collecting data on box jellyfish, a project he had started the year before.

Seventy-three-year-old Yoneshige, who retired in 1990 from the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, where he worked for 35 years, also started keeping data on box jellyfish invasions in 1990.

The two men, who met for the first time two months ago, each figured out on his own how to predict the invasion period based on monthly moon phases.

Blair estimated that invasions come eight to nine days following a full moon, while Yoneshige concluded they happen one or two days after the last quarter moon of the month.

The estimated arrival time for both is about the same.

Star-Bulletin
Box jellyfish first started showing up in the late '80s.

"I'm not surprised by his findings because we were approaching it the same way -- as a science," Blair said of Yoneshige.

By September 1991, Blair said, "patterns were obvious and they became clear to me by the end of '92."

Dr. Carol Hopper of the Honolulu Aquarium had identified the species in March 1992, and it was determined that box jellyfish started showing up regularly here from December 1988, said Blair.

Having determined the invasion cycle to be every 29-30 days from his data, Blair began researching a reason for the cycle.

"I studied the Bible, because it talks about the laws of heaven, and science, math and astronomy books," he said.

There were two possibilities: the synodic lunar cycle or a sidereal cycle related to the stars, said Blair.

"The synodic cycle averages 29.54 days so I began looking at the moon (phases)," he said. "Actually, it's not just the day of the full moon, but the specific hour and minute that determines how to judge the influx."

Through his work as a lifeguard, Blair was able to convince his supervisors about the calculations and the city initiated its public-warning campaign in 1993.

Yoneshige spent four years collecting data before drawing his conclusion.

"It's almost like clockwork now," he said of the box jellyfish arrival.

When Yoneshige got stung on his face while swimming near the Natatorium in 1990, he "almost went into shock. I didn't want people to get stung so I figured I'd look into this. My work at Pearl Harbor had to do with keeping data, so I knew how to do it."

Blair has continued his research, collecting samples for the University of Hawaii's Pacific Biomedical Research Center, where venom research for a box jellyfish sting treatment is on-going at Bekesy Lab.

He's also collecting data from Bishop Museum and working with zoologist Beatrice Burch and her husband, Dr. Thomas Burch, to determine the history of box jellyfish here.

"They've been identified as being here in 1948, 1951, 1980 and 1981," Blair said. "It's unconfirmed but there's a possibility there was an influx in 1902 and 1877.

"They are a tropical species, basically Atlantic and Pacific. My guess is they are an introduced species."

When and where not to swim The monthly box jellyfish invasion is expected this weekend, peaking from early this morning through tomorrow. Affected beaches include Ala Moana Beach Park swim channel, Waikiki Beach, Hanauma Bay, Pokai Bay and Makaha surfing beach. During morning high tide, the jellyfish will be found swimming in the water, not beached. If you're stung The Ocean Safety Division recommends flushing the affected area with lots of vinegar.