More than a dozen people have been stung by stingrays that have been drawn to Los Angeles County beaches by warm ocean temperatures and calm seas, according to lifeguards.
Two people were stung during separate encounters with stingrays at Will Rogers State Beach in Pacific Palisades Friday while KTLA crews were on scene.
“We have seen countless stingrays throughout the Santa Monica Bay, with several causing stingray hits,” said Capt. Kenichi Haskett of the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division. “When going into the ocean, shuffle your feet.”
One Pacific Palisades beachgoer, an 11-year-old girl, was stung on the foot as she was swimming with friends, witnesses said.
Camp counselors got her out of the water quickly.
Video showed lifeguards taking the girl off the beach and loading her onto a stretcher. She was expected to be OK.
“Sometimes when the temperatures get warm like this, the water warms up … so the stingrays like to come into the shallow area,” Sina Monjazeb, the director of Sandy Days Kids Camp said.
Sandy Days is a supervised beach camp for kids located in Pacific Palisades, according to their website.
The camp counselors teach the kids to do the “stingray shuffle,” Monjazeb said.
A man who had also been stung was sitting in the bed of a lifeguard truck as his foot soaked in a bag, video showed.
Soaking in very hot water was said to neutralize the poison from barbed spines on stingrays’ long tails, which lash up when the creatures are provoked.
More advice was posted on the Los Angeles County Fire Department Lifeguard Division website.
KTLA’s Melissa Pamer contributed to this article.
