Reply #3: "New Jellyfish Problem Means Jellyfish Are Not the Only Problem"

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May 21, 2002
New Jellyfish Problem Means Jellyfish Are Not the Only Problem

By OTTO POHL

ORT DOUGLAS, Australia — When Robert King climbed back on the boat after snorkeling off the Great Barrier Reef here on March 31, he knew something was wrong. "I don't feel so good," he said, rubbing his chest.

He had been stung by a jellyfish, and his condition deteriorated rapidly. By the time the emergency helicopter arrived, he was screaming in agony; a few hours later he was in a coma, eyes frozen wide, bleeding into his brain. He never regained consciousness.

Mr. King, 44, from Columbus, Ohio, was the second person in Australia to die this year from the sting of a species of jellyfish, Carukia barnesi, found only in Australia and never before known to be fatal. More than 200 other victims went to hospitals, several times the number in a normal summer season here.

In many places around the world, jellyfish populations are sharply increasing, stinging more people and wreaking economic damage. While in some areas the increase appears to be part of a natural cycle (jellyfish populations are declining in some other areas), scientists have noticed an overall upward trend. And they suspect that human activity is to blame.

...Australia was stunned into action by the two deaths, which officials fear could hurt tourism. "No one cared until someone died," said Dr. Seymour, a member of a hastily convened commission.

http://www.hawaii.edu/ur/newslinks/nyt/nyt052102.htm

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Boy's death from box jellyfish 'avoidable', says expert

March 24 2003

A seven-year-old boy's excruciating death from a box jellyfish sting near Cairns was preventable, a stinger expert said today.

Jareed Crook was swimming in unprotected waters at Wongaling Beach south of Cairns yesterday when he swam into the highly poisonous jellyfish.

Witnesses said he was dragged screaming from the water by his grandfather to find marks from the animal's toxic tentacles across his body.

Box jellyfish can grow to be as big as a basketball, have 60 long tentacles and can have enough venom to kill 60 adult humans.

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Worldwide deaths and severe envenomation from jellyfish stings

Peter J Fenner and John A Williamson



We have collected worldwide information about jellyfish and their stings since 1990, through personal communication with members of the International Consortium of Jellyfish Stings (ICJS), 1 investigating reports of serious jellyfish stings heard on the "grapevine", and travelling in areas of chirodropid (multitentacled "box" jellyfish) distribution. Annual reports of our data have been published from 1991 to 1993.

In Australia, particularly on the east coast, up to 10 000 stings occur each summer from the bluebottle (Physalia spp.) alone, with others also from the "hair jellyfish" (Cyanea) and "blubber" (Catostylus). More bluebottle stings occur in South Australia and Western Australia, as well as stings from a single-tentacled box jellyfish, the "jimble" (Carybdea rastoni) (personal data) .

The chirodropid Chironex fleckeri 3,4,8 is known to be the most lethal jellyfish in the world, 3 and has caused at least 63 recorded deaths in tropical Australian waters off Queensland and the Northern Territory since 1884.

http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/dec2/fenner/fenner.html