Stung by Deadly Jellyfish !!

[tunabelly]

Diver Stung In Face By Deadly Jellyfish


10:31am UK, Friday December 04, 2009 - Anna Pollitt, Sky News Online

A man is in intensive care after he swam face first into a potentially lethal jellyfish off the coast of Australia.




The potentially lethal Irukandji Jellyfish shown next to a matchstick


The 29-year-old from Brisbane was wearing a protective "stinger suit" when he dived off a yacht into the water near South Molle Island off Queensland. But his face, hands and feet were left exposed and he was immediately stung in the face by the Irukandji jellyfish, which is almost invisible to the naked eye.

The man was flown to intensive care at Mackay Base Hospital, 600 miles north of Brisbane, where a hospital spokeswoman described his condition as "serious". "The crew said he was shivering and in shock and in a great deal of pain," added Queensland Helicopter Rescue Service spokeswoman Leonie Hansen.

While venomous jellyfish are not unusual off northern Australia during the Southern Hemisphere summer, the Irukandji is particularly fearsome and can pass through nets designed to protect swimmers.



Ms Gershwin with an Irukandji


The first recorded deaths attributed to the Irukandji were in 2002, when two people were killed by the peanut-sized creature in separate incidents. Marine biologist Lisa Gershwin, who has spent 11 years studying the species, said the stings are extremely serious.

"One of the very worst stings I've ever seen - sting as in permanent heart damage - was just three dots on the finger." But because they do not leave any marks on their prey, experts believe there could be many more victims.

It is feared some deaths attributed to drowning or heart attacks could actually have been caused by "Irukandji syndrome".

Symptoms from an Irukandji sting include shooting pains in the muscles and chest, vomiting, restlessness and can occasionally lead to a rapid rise in blood pressure and heart failure.



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Capt. Asparagus.... I was wondering if this is the tiny jellyfish that National Geographic did a special program on? Do you know? And, is this little bugger present in the areas where you live and/or fish? Pretty scary stuff.......

tb

[Piscator]

George-

I'm not sure if it was Discovery or National Geographic, but I do recall seeing a program about the Irukandji Jellyfish where two researchers got stung and ended up in the hospital with some real nasty symptoms.

Glad those little guys aren't floating around our local beaches.

[Capt Asparagus]

You don't find any particularly troublesome jellyfish in NZ waters, the odd bluebottle, but that is it really. These critters though are in the north of aussie, and it is fair to say, God invented northern aussie to hide every poisonous, homicidally inclined critter away from having to bump into humans. Trouble is, humans have moved into the neighbourhood now too.
From memory, the box jellyfish, which is such a huge problem in nthn Aussie, is not found anywhere else in the western/central pacific, so places like the Solomon Islands (where I hang out a lot), Vanuatu and points East are free from this peril. I had not heard of these otehr little things before though, but know of no problems with lethal jellyfish in any of the tropical isles.
Cheers,
Stu.