Jellyfish stung 13,000 people on Australia's east coast in the past week

Just when you thought it was safe to go to Australia.

A "wall" of bluebottle jellyfish is washing up on the country's eastern coast, local officials say, forcing the state of Queensland to close several beaches. They stung 3,595 people last weekend and 13,000 in the past week in Queensland alone, and some scientists think climate change is to blame, The Washington Post reports.

From Dec. 1 to Jan. 7, some 22,282 people were treated for bluebottle stings in Queensland, per The Guardian. The state had 6,831 stings in that same time last year, and the entire country usually sees 25,000 to 45,000 stings a year, the Australian Marine Stinger Advisory Service says. It all adds up to what local officials call an "epidemic."

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The bluebottles usually end up coming to shore in massive throngs, with Surf Life Saving Queensland reporting approaching pods via Twitter. "Strong and unusual winds" are pushing the squads toward Queensland, the Post writes, and that's not the only climate-related explanation. "Jellyfish are stimulated by just about any change to the ecosystem," a researcher tells the Post, suggesting Australia's warming waters and pollution contributed to the growing jellyfish "bloom."

Bluebottle stings are usually treated with ice or hot water, but nine people have been hospitalized with stings in the past month, per CNN. Rarer species are typically more dangerous, and there's been an uptick in the number of their stings as well.