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Shore Beach Services reports heavy season: 9,000 jellyfish stings, new dashboard and red‑flag warnings
Summary
Shore Beach Services reported another busy season on Hilton Head Island: roughly 81 lifeguards staffed from March to October, about 9,000 jellyfish‑sting minor medical aids last year, nearly 10,000 public contacts, and a new public dashboard and QR code to share live beach conditions and red‑flag warnings.
Mike Wagner, beach patrol director for Shore Beach Services, presented the annual beach operations report, describing a busy season that required broad staffing, new public communications and training in coordination with the town and Fire and Rescue.
Wagner said the service fielded a staff of roughly 81 lifeguard personnel, seven supervisors, nine support staff and four senior managers recruited from about 20 U.S. states and 10 other countries. He said the top incident categories were minor medical-aid calls (including jellyfish stings), prevention actions to pull people out of hazardous surf, contacts for shark sightings and lightning, and rescues. He reported about 9,000 jellyfish stings in a typical year (a figure that can rise sharply in bad seasons), about 50 rescues this year and just shy of 10,000 public contacts.
Shore Beach Services launched a public dashboard accessible via QR code that displays live conditions by beach area and flags marine or weather hazards. Wagner said the team added red‑flag truck warnings at unguarded accesses when the National Weather Service issued high rip‑current risk and ran a sand‑collapse training exercise with the Fire and Rescue Department to prepare for rare but high‑risk incidents.
Wagner answered committee questions about lifeguard locations, how unguarded areas are monitored (marked access points and 911 protocols) and how rental attendants are certified. He said rental attendants are certified lifeguards who can drop rental duties to respond to emergencies. The committee requested a shorter, high‑level report format and more consistent year‑over‑year statistics for comparison; Wagner said detailed location data and a public dashboard provide that context and he would work with staff to produce a concise summary.
Next steps: Shore Beach Services will continue dashboard improvements, provide requested summary statistics and coordinate further with the town about lifeguard placement and public outreach.
