Silly season to risk brush with deadly stings
“SILLY” people have been blamed for a rise in the number of box jellyfish stings in Far Northern waters.
Surf Life Saving Queensland says an average amount of people were stung by dangerous marine stingers overall in the Cairns region during the 2014/15 season, mainly people swimming at Palm Cove, Clifton Beach and Mission Beach.
There was, however, a higher than average number of beachgoers who needed medical treatment after being stung specifically by box jellyfish.
Surf Life Saving Queensland regional manager Col Sparkes said a majority of these cases were people who blatantly ignored beach safety warnings.
“People were swimming outside of the stinger nets, or walking in the water when there’s closed beaches, so that was disappointing,’’ he said.
“It wasn’t that we’ve had more box jellyfish, it’s people being silly.
“A lot of these stings were in shallow water.
“They seem to think that if you’re in shallow water you’re OK, but that’s where the animals are feeding.
“People walk along in shallow water and get stung on their feet.”
Box jellyfish stings can be fatal, however none of the victims were seriously injured.
Marine stingers can be present in Australia’s tropical waters all year round, but the higher-risk stinger season traditionally runs from November to May.
Mr Sparkes said there were initially fears the season would last longer than usual due to the late wet season.
“At this stage we’ve just had these strong southeasterlies, so we haven’t seen the presence of any box jellyfish on the beaches for a few weeks now – quite a long time,’’ he said. Regional lifeguard supervisor Jay March said large box jellyfish specimens with bell diameters of up to 20cm were retrieved from waters at Mission Beach a few weeks ago.
Box jellyfish stings have killed more than 60 people in Australia, while three people are known to have died from irukandji jellyfish in the past 100 years worldwide.