Jellyfish
Advice and Information

Travel Safety Jellfish Information:

There are around two thousand species of Jellyfish in the world but less than one hundred are considered dangerous to human animals. They are not in fact fish but invertebrates with none of the organs we would associate with higher life forms.

Jellyfish eat mainly zooplankton and do so by capturing them with toxic tentacles which range from a few inches to a few hundred feet long. They travel around the oceans on self propulsion, tide and wind, in warm and cold waters alike.

The complete lack of a brain means that if a jellyfish stings you it really can't help it - unless it's Chironex fleckeri which can control itself efficiently, even without a brain.
If its stinging cells [nematocysts] make contact with your skin they will release their poison into it.

The Box jelly species, known as Cubozoa [ie. cube shape], includes Irukandji as far as scientists are concerned, though laymen think of the Box jelly as the big one and Irukandji as the little 'un. The biological names are: Chironex fleckeri [the Box] and Carukia barnesi [the Peanut]

Dangerous Jellyfish:

Box Jelly [Chironex fleckeri - pictured above left and resulting scars right - and 20 near relatives] is found off the shores of Northern Australia, PNG, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. This marine animal has a boxy bell head the size of a basket ball and three metre tentacles that can kill a man in a couple of minutes, though there are recent reports of much smaller Box jellies that are just as deadly.
It has 3 million stinging cells every centimtre of its tentacles!
The Box jelly is responsible for at least one death a year around Australia and has killed 67 people since records began in 1883, though the total is misleading since many deaths attributed to heart attacks or drowning could have been caused by toxic jellies.
Problem shores are usually signposted, and this is one serious bubblepack to be avoided at all costs - the most poisonous creature in the world.
New Scientist magazine [Nov '03] revealed that Box jellies are not 'dim-witted ocean drifters' but 'fast, active predators that hunt and kill with incredible speed and brutality.'

The Box Jellyfish is mostly a problem from October - May.
Symptoms:
- severe pain
- headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea
- skin swelling/wounds/redness
- difficulty breathing, swallowing and speech
- shivering, sweating
- irregular pulse/heart failure
Stings treatment:
- pour vinegar over tentacles. Urine does not work on the Box Jelly or Irukandji.
- lift off any tentacles with a stick or similar.
- use pressure-immobilisation on limbs if possible. i.e. quickly wrap a light bandage above and below the sting [if you can't get two fingers under the bandage, it's too tight].
- Immobilize/splint the stung area and keep it at heart level [gravity-neutral] if possible. Too high causes venom to travel to the heart, too low causes more swelling.
- Do not drink alcohol, or take any medicine or food.
- get medical treatment urgently or apply antivenom if available.

Irukandji [Carukia barnesi and several other unidentified species that produce irukandji syndrome] - also lurks in the waters of Northen Australia, mostly near Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. Irregular sea currents can easily move it to the shore.
It is extremely painful and occasionally deadly.
Irukandji has been seen as far south as Brisbane.
It's mostly a problem from November - May, but has been recorded in all months except July and August.
Symptoms [as little as 5 minutes after apparently mild stings]:
- lower back pain, intense headache.
- muscle cramps and shooting pains, nausea, vomiting.
- catastrophically high blood pressure.
- restlessness and feeling of impending doom.
- death from heart failure or fluid on the lungs.
Stings treatment:
- pour vinegar over tentacles.
- lift off any tentacles with a stick or similar.
- compress the wound area with a bandage.
- take pain killers.
- get medical treatment as soon as possible.

Portuguese man-of-war/ the Blue-bottle [Hydrozoa to a scientist] - this is a sail bearing, wind blown animal which travels the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans and may be blown inshore. The larger varieties may be occasionally fatal to humans but are not usually dangerous.
Stings treatment:
- lift off any tentacles with a stick or similar.
- apply an ice pack
- apply a local anaesthetic [sunburn cream/insect bite cream].

Advice on avoiding Jellyfish Stings:

Take extreme precautions if you have an existing heart condition as Jellyfish deaths are normally attributed to cardiac arrest [or pulmonary congestion].

Avoid swimming in the Oct-May high-jelly season, especially in the seas north of Brisbane, in Northern Australia, and particularly around Cairns and the Whitsunday islands. Also beware around PNG, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Wetsuits or Lycra 'stinger suits ' offer good protection especially the sophisticated models with hands, neck and head coverage, see picture. Feet may be covered by fins or swimming shoes.

Take notice of warnings! Bathing areas prone to toxic jellies may have safety signs. see picture.

Keep your eyes peeled when swimming in areas where the more dangerous variety live tho' your chances of seeing Irukandji are smaller than they are.

Dead jellyfish on the shore may look like gelatinous blobs and they are, but while there is still moisture, there can be life in those old cells and you may be stung. Safety first! Don't tread on them and don't pick them up.

General Jellyfish Stings Treatment:

- rinse the area with sea water. Do not scrub or wash with fresh water which will aggravate the stinging cells. Do not pour sun lotion or spirit-based liquid on the area.
- deactivate remaining cells with a vinegar rinse. If no vinegar is available use urine, apart from Box jellies and Irukandji. Ask a mate for a golden shower! Really! Preferably male urine as it's considered to be more sterile.
- lift off any remaining tentacles with a stick or similar.
- if cells still linger, dust with flour and carefully scrape off with a blunt knife.
- after all tentacle sections have gone, pain can be treated with a cold pack and/or a local anaesthetic such as a sunburn lotion or insect bite treatment that lists '...ocaine' as an ingredient.
- if there is continued swelling, or itchiness, apply a light steroid cream e.g. Hydrocortisone eczema cream.
- if muscle spasms persist see a doctor.

Treatment Research:
Doctors in Queensland are successfully using magnesium sulphate in clinical trials to cure Irukandji syndrome.
They are also testing a compound that prevents stinger cells from firing which may be added to waterproof sunscreen in the not too distant future...

 

Other Travel Safety - Dangerous animals information:

Blue-ringed octopus and Stonefish

Shark Attacks

Crocodile and Alligator Attacks

Scorpion Stings | Snake Bites

Bee and Wasp Stings

Lion Attacks | Bear Attacks

Picture above of Chironex fleckeri [Box jelly]
courtesy of Peggy Hamner, UCLA