San Diego reports 900+ stings in first half of 2026
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — Jake Hemann grabbed a board and headed out to surf along the Southern California coast. Within an hour, the 31-year-old tourist from New Mexico was sitting at the lifeguard station, soaking his throbbing foot in a pail of hot water alongside four other beachgoers.
It is a familiar scene at Bolsa Chica and some other popular Southern California beaches, where the number of people being struck by the serrated barbs on the tails of stingrays has climbed significantly over the past year. The increase has coincided with a marine heat wave that has drawn both rays and beachgoers closer to shore.
Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beaches have reported more than 3,100 stingray incidents so far this year, twice the total for all of 2025. The city of Huntington Beach’s 3.5-mile (5.6 kilometer) stretch of shoreline has logged more than 2,000 incidents so far this year — more than during all of last year, lifeguard data shows.
Farther south, San Diego’s beaches recorded more than 900 stings during the first half of 2026 — more than during the first six months of any of the past five years.
“We’re definitely seeing an increase,” said Bryan R. Etnyre, state park superintendent in northern Orange County. “A lot of it is due to warming ocean temperatures that are consistently staying in the 60s. I don’t think there was a week all winter where we dropped below 60 this year.”
Etnyre said ocean temperatures had remained in the 60s through the winter, with no week dropping below 60.
For Hemann, the encounter was sudden. He said he was learning to surf when he hopped off his board and landed on what he thought was a sharp stick. “It hurt pretty bad,” he said, while sinking his foot into the hottest water tolerable. “It was radiating up to my ankle.”