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HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. — <\/span>Jake Hemann grabbed a board and headed out to surf. But an hour later, he wound up sitting at the lifeguard station soaking his foot in a pail of hot water alongside four other beachgoers.<\/p>\n It is a common scene at Bolsa Chica State Beach and some other popular beaches in Southern California where the number of people being hit by the sharp, serrated caudal barbs found on the tails of stingrays has gone up significantly from a year ago as a marine heat wave<\/a> draws more stingrays \u2014 and people \u2014 to shore. <\/p>\n Hemann, a 31-year-old tourist from New Mexico, said he was learning to surf when he hopped off his board and landed on what he thought was a sharp stick. \u201cIt hurt pretty bad,\u201d he said, while sinking his throbbing foot into the hottest water tolerable to ease the pain. \u201cIt was radiating up to my ankle.\u201d<\/p>\n Bolsa Chica and Huntington State Beaches reported more than 3,100 incidents so far this year, twice the number for all of 2025. The city of Huntington Beach’s 3.5-mile (5.6 kilometer) stretch of shoreline has reported more than 2,000 such incidents so far this year, more than during all last year, while more than 900 stings were recorded on San Diego\u2019s beaches during the first half of 2026, more than during the first six months of any of the past five years, lifeguard data shows. <\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re definitely seeing an increase,\u201d said Bryan R. Etnyre, state park superintendent in northern Orange County. \u201cA lot of it is due to warming ocean temperatures that are consistently staying in the 60s. I don\u2019t think there was a week all winter where we dropped below 60 this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Round stingrays are found in Pacific Ocean waters from Panama to Southern California and are known to veer toward the shore when the swell is down and the water warm. <\/p>\n In recent years, many species that feed on rays, such as sharks, sea lions and giant sea bass, have seen their populations dwindle, causing the number of stingrays to grow, said Chris Lowe, professor of marine biology and director of the Shark Lab at California State University, Long Beach.<\/p>\n Rays are known to prefer warmer water, such as lagoons. Females prefer these waters to reproduce, and during the summer male rays have a higher metabolism that drives them to seek out food in the invertebrates along the shore, Lowe said.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re really a subtropical species that is thriving at the end of its range because of climate change,\u201d Lowe said.<\/p>\n The ocean already has been warming because of human-caused climate change<\/a>, according to meteorologists.<\/p>\n