Regional Manager for Surf Life Saving Queensland Rob Davidson said that we are about to go into the high risk season for stingers and therefore the nets generally go out at the beginning of November.

“Once the nets go in we basically say the only safe place to swim is inside the nets between the red and yellow flags because if we can't see you we can't save you.”

“If you have a stinger suit or a rashie put it on and any questions just ask our very friendly lifeguards and they’ll be more than happy to answer.”

Davidson said that while there haven’t been many sightings of stingers yet, we are never singer free in North Queensland with a low and high risk season.

“There are other jellyfish here all year round but as we get the flooding and the rains and the season continues obviously we will get the box jellyfish come out and grow in size and we will still have irukandji come around as well.”

The severity of the stinger season will depend on the weather conditions including the amount rain and how much northerly winds the region gets.

“We've had comments that we had less stings last year, now I'm hoping that was due to the fact that more people swam inside the net,” Davidson said.

“If you get people swimming outside the nets it's not safe and you put yourself at a greater likelihood of being stung by a box jellyfish or a Chironex fleckeri. If you do get stung by Chironex fleckeri with 2 to 3 metres of tentacle steam you potentially will go into cardiac arrest within 2 to 5 minutes and that may not be a positive outcome.”

Surf life savers are urging people to wear protective clothing, swim between the red and yellow flags within the net and heed the advice of the lifeguards on duty this summer.