What Makes the Sea Wasp
so Deadly?
There
are many creatures on this earth that are quite deadly to humans.
The deadliest of all, of course, being other humans. Perhaps,
what poses the greatest threat to our lives are creatures we can't
even see - microbes.
These are the microorganisms we usually call germs or cooties, the
ones that make us sick. By and large, disease-causing germs are responsible
for the largest number of human deaths every year. But what we're
talking about here are the venomous
creatures; those whose bodies manufacture
toxins that can be rubbed off, ingested
(swallowed), or injected into another, causing severe illness or death.
Just to name a few, there's the poison dart frogs of the Costa Rican
jungles, stonefish, cone shells, the black mamba snake, and even a
tiny octopus that lives in tropical waters. When creatures are rated
for the "deadliness factor" there's a couple of measures that are
taken into account:
-
1) How many people an
ounce of the creature's venom can kill
-
2) How long it takes you to die from the venom after being bitten,
stung, or stuck
In both cases
the grand prize winner and world-record holder is the creature known
as the sea
wasp, or
marine stinger. The name sea wasp is misleading because the creature
isn't actually a wasp or insect at all. It is a jellyfish (Chironex
fleckeri). The "bell" of this
box jelly can get as big as a basketball with up to 60 tentacles hanging
down as long as 15 feet, which is pretty good sized jelly. Not as
big as the world-record jellyfish, though (check
it out).
Silent Stalkers
Sea Wasps,
or box jellies, are not aggressive. They don't have to be. For jellyfish,
they are pretty fast swimmers (up to 5mph), dangling their long tentacles
in the surf behind them until something, usually a fish, gets caught
in their practically invisible tentacles. That's where all their nematocysts
(stinging capsules contained within cells called cnidocytes located
along the tentacles) are located. (Most people who have been stung
are Aussies who were swimming in the surf along with the jellies and
never even saw the tentacles.) The poison is used to kill their prey
as close to "instant" as possible in order to prevent a struggling
victim from thrashing their delicate tissues. Makes sense. Then they
can take their time devouring their meal without risking injury to
themselves.
Deadly Toxins
What's really
amazing is how the stinging cells work. They're little tiny poison
darts that are buried inside the flesh of each tentacle (like the
sweat glands in your skin), along the entire length. They're triggered
chemically, by contacting the surface of human skin or the scaly skin
of a fish. Scientists have captured box jellies and put them in tanks
in the laboratory. Simply by pouring alcohol into the tank they caused
the stinging cells to react and release their venom. Hmmm. This means
that if the jelly's tentacles don't come in contact with the chemicals
on human skin, the nematocysts won't respond and you won't
get stung!
Simple Fix
Turns out,
something as thin and flimsy as women's nylon pantyhose worn over
the skin will prevent the jellies from stinging. Aussies have known
about this trick for years. You'll catch totally cool Aussie Lifeguards
wearing women's pantyhose over their arms and on their legs. It may
look funny, but it can prevent them from suffering agonizing pain
and can even save their lives.
Not everyone
who has been stung by a Sea Wasp has died, but those who didn't may
have wished they had. The sting from a box jelly is said to be excruciatingly
painful. It can cause nausea, vomiting and breathing problems. The
Aussies have developed an antivenom
(something to counteract the toxic effects of the jelly's venom).
Doesn't do you a whole lotta good if you got stung so badly while
you were out in the water and then couldn't even make it back to shore.
But, you really need to get tangled up good (contacting at least 10
feet of tentacle) in order to experience its ultimate effect - death.
