Jersey Shore Magazine

J e r s e y s h o r e • F A L L / H O L I D A Y 2 0 1 5 44 JERSEY SHORE PEOPLE SHORE CONNECTED, continued from page 43 my memories, go down in flames." Despite the personal connection to the story, he remained objective and did the job his followers expected of him. As a result, Auciello's video, photographs, and posts to the JSHN page went viral. They were viewed and read worldwide both in real time as the fire happened and for days in covering the aftermath. Meaney's role at the Seaside fire was that of first responder. He was on scene with the Point Pleasant Beach First Aid to assist wherever needed during the fire and its aftermath. "I was able to take a few photos, but I put my role as responder before my role as photographer or storyteller," he said. His big story was yet to come, a little over a year in the future. An Unwelcome Visitor: The Box Jellyfish On October 21, 2014, Meaney happened to be in the right place at the right time—twice. Not only did he capture a waterspout off Lavallette that day, he also happened to notice something very strange in the water off Baltimore Avenue in Point Pleasant Beach. "It would go under water maybe a foot or two, and then it would swim up along the surface. It kept going to the same spot, over and over," he said. After shooting several videos and photographs of the creature and post- ing them to the BBI page, some con- tributors jokingly commented that it was an alien. However, others identi- fied it on the first try: a box jellyfish, or to be technically correct, a Tamoya haplonema. The fact that the box jellyfish was alive at the Jersey Shore in October created a buzz worldwide. The find was extremely rare because this particular type of jellyfish is usual- ly found in warm, coastal waters. Meaney said, "I was happy as could From the Jersey Shore Hurricane News page: Auciello photographed and posted—less than thirty minutes from the first alarm—what turned out to be one of the iconic images from the Seaside boardwalk fire, September 12, 2013. Justin Auciello be," he said. "Besides the fact I didn't know what it was, I was happy that I got those pictures. This was some- thing I'd never seen before." His video and photographs went viral. One month later, Meaney found another box jellyfish on the beach in Bay Head, but this one was dead. About half a dozen others washed up along northern Ocean County beaches after Meaney's first find in October. Because the venom on its tentacles can cause a terrible sting, the box jellyfish is considered to be very dan- gerous. With peaked interest, many organizations publicly discussed the dangers, including the Department of Environmental Protection, the New Jersey Sea Grant Consortium, and Save Barnegat Bay. Allen Collins, of the Smithsonian Institute, is a jellyfish expert who examined one of the box jellyfish from New Jersey. Collins was quite

• Cover