The fact that Zoe Cahill is still alive after her jellyfish encounter is probably thanks to the courageous helpers on the beach. They are said to have poured a lot of vinegar on the unconscious woman after she somehow made it out of the water and back to the beach.
On the Australian news site “9News” you can currently read the story of the young Australian woman who was probably touched by the tentacles of a sea wasp while swimming on the Thai island of Ko Pha-ngan last fall, just about 50 meters from the shore. The sea wasp is considered one of the most dangerous jellyfish in the world. The only thing worse is the Irukandji, which occurs in Australia, a tiny, transparent creature whose touch can also kill people.
The many red welts and burn blisters on the 23-year-old’s body suggest that in the Australian woman’s case it was a sea wasp. The woman had to be cared for in a clinic for more than a month. “I saw what looked like pieces of plastic,” she recently told Australian reporters about the day of her swimming accident. Shortly afterwards she noticed a stabbing pain while swimming. It felt like an electric shock, her whole body was vibrating.
The memory of how she made it to the shore is only sketchy. But around 15 people came to her aid on the beach, including a nurse. She lost consciousness and turned blue.
The sea wasp is an extremely poisonous jellyfish
Sea wasps are among the most poisonous jellyfish; people often die after coming into contact with their three-meter-long tentacles. The animals are native to the entire Indo-Pacific, with a relatively large distribution area on the eastern and northern coasts of Australia. The animals that belong to the box jellyfish are also called “box jellyfish”. Entire sections of beaches in Australia often have to be closed because of poisonous jellyfish.
Jellyfish are also found in the seas in our latitudes, but the specimens in the local waters are usually harmless to humans and certainly not fatal. However, touching it can be quite painful and cause burns.
Jellyfish are cnidarians. Researchers distinguish between the poisonous box jellyfish and the disk or umbrella jellyfish, which are harmless to humans and whose poison can hardly or not be felt. In principle, however, all jellyfish have some kind of poison. The animals need this for defense and to catch prey.
Some species of jellyfish eat plankton, others prey on small creatures such as fish. Since many sea creatures are relatively insensitive to poisons, the jellyfish have to use very strong substances in order to be successful when hunting.
And then there is another species – which is also extremely feared among water sports enthusiasts – which, strictly speaking, is not a jellyfish at all, but a so-called sea bubble or state jellyfish, which consists of a colony of creatures: the Portuguese galley. Since it is colloquially classified as a jellyfish, it also appears in this photo series.
Despite the danger they pose, many people are fascinated by jellyfish, which are 97 percent water. From initially millimeter-sized polyps, they develop into sometimes quite large animals that pulsate through the water. Jellyfish serve as food for other animals, such as sea turtles.
Here we present jellyfish whose poisons can be fatal to humans or at least quite painful. Some of these animals also occur in our latitudes and in the Mediterranean.
Sources: “9News“, “Dive“, Wadden Sea protection station“”Animalcyclopedia.de” / with material from dpa
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