Lionfish envenomation, HURTS LIKE A MF"ER!!!!!

[Jax]

Doug -- ALL the freaking way through your thumb? How the heck could you put in that much force?

 

[diverdoug1]

Doug -- ALL the freaking way through your thumb? How the heck could you put in that much force?

I was shocked as well. I guess I did not have an appreciation for just how sharp their spines are. It was like a hot icepick through butter.

 

[Tigerman]

I got myself stung on a greater weever a few years back and it was the 2nd worst (enduring) pain Ive ever had. The worst one being a serious case of meningitis.
I dont even wanna contemplate sticking myself on a lionfish..

 

[macado]

I feel your pain. I've been stung before and while I can't say it was the worst pain I've ever felt, it definitely wasn't a pleasant experience. I imagine their venom affects people differently or perhaps I just wasn't injected with as much venom.

Happened to me while I was cutting the spines off a lionfish already on my spear. I was being careless, the fish jerked and I got a spine right in my thumb. I now make sure I kill lionfish before cutting their spines. I actually completed the dive while in pain, I was sucking on my thumb the entire time in hopes to remove some of the venom. Not sure if this helped but I like to think it did? Once I got back on the boat, I put my hand next to the boat exhaust since hot water denatures the venom.

For me, it was a throbbing pain that lasted about 2-3 hours. Swelling took a couple days to go down as well.​

 

[CuracaoJ]

If you're going to go hunting for them regularly you may want to get one of these: ZooKeeper

Used by these guys: Lionfish Elimination Team

And since someone was requesting pics, this is from two days after a buddy of mine was stung.

 

[ScubaFrog01]

I was out last Friday doing my part to help irradicate the Lionfish overtaking Honduran waters. It was such a target rich environment of the coast of Roatan, that I had speared 16 Lionfish in the first 35 minutes of my dive. I alredy had 3 of them on my pole spear, and tried to make some room at the end of the pole to get # 17. Well, as I thrust the spear forward to shift the fish back, I over did it. I sent a doral spine completely through my thumb. The spine went in on the crease of my distal thumb joint, and came out next to my nail bed. The initial pain was considerable, but I knew I was in for a great deal more. I was concerned about systemic toxicity, so I proceded to my safety stop and surfaced. Pain and swelling in my hand rapidly increased over the next 90 minutes. My thumb eventually swelled to 3 times it's normal diameter, and my whole hand also had significant swelling. I treated the sting with hot water immersion, and took some antihistamines and tylenol (this was woefully inefective in treating the pain, but it was all I had, and at least I suffered few systemic effects). The pain peaked at 90 minutes, and did not decrease for another 4 hours. After that, the pain slowly decreased, but still hurts some six days later. I have had some painfull injuries in the past, but this was the most intense pain I have ever experienced. Some people seem to be less reactive to the venom, but I seem to be sensitive to it. Also, my puncture traversed deep tissue. Once I got to Florida 2 days later, I radiographed the digit to rule out retained spine fragments, and took a tetanus booster. After six days, all swelling in the hand has resolved, but I have some skin sloughing and joint pain. One moment of haste and carelessness has caused me a good deal of pain. Prior to this episode, I always thought someone would really have to be a goober to get stung. While this may be the case, and I may be guilty of "gooberosity", I also have a new appreciation for how easy it was to get stuck! Please be dilligent in protecting yourself from getting stuck.

Sounds like a painful lesson learned, by sharing perhaps others may learn what not to do.

Safe diving to you

Scubafrog

 

[CCRDolphinDiver]

So, here's an idea for you - DON'T GO MESSING WITH THE WILDLIFE!!

I know this is a bit of a topic for grand debate, but how about we just accept that we are part of nature, not the rulers of it, that if we "mess up" and cause a change to the ecosystem balance, that's ok, that happens. The ecosystem will react, change slightly, develop. If lionfish come to dominate...OK, so they dominate! Good luck to them.

Lets do what we can do not affect the environment and ecosystems, absolutely. I'm definitely in favour of controls, rules and regs for release of fish into non-native habitats etc, but when something does happen, let's surely just accept it and let nature take it's course. After all, migratory animals (birds, fish etc) have been introducing "alien" species to new ecosystems for millenia. It's how the world got to be this way. We are just another animal, responsible for causing mixing. Let's not interfere, and especially if it's going to damage us!

But lion fish are just so d'm tasty! My first opportunity ever spearfishing was visiting ******* and my buddy who lived there had a spare spear. We were diving quite a bit deeper than the local DM's who are usually the only ones culling the population. We popped about a hundred fish and ate about a third of them (the only ones large enough to filet) over my week stay. Sorry you got stuck m8. Might be time to invest in mail gloves eh?

 

[diverdoug1]

Chain gloves are great for protecting from cuts, but not so great for needle like punctures. My buddy has used chain gloves for shark feeds, but found out the hard way that they don't work as well for barracuda bites (which have pointier teeth than reef sharks).

 

[ajtoady]

I was going to "like" your post, but didn't want you to think I enjoyed your misery! I like that you posted the effects and duration of them thereof.

 

[drdaddy]

The first time I encountered lionfish was Red Sea, Israel. A couple of years later my son accompanied me and we were on a night dive. They came out in droves and followed us around. Turns out they knew the divers were going to find them "sleeping prey". I was trying to signal my son how dangerous they were as they came sneaking around us, sometime within inches. When we came up my son was quite irritated, "I know Dad" - "over-protective Daddy". We ended up leaving him there for 6 months and he became an instructor conducting hundreds of instructional and tourist dives. He and his fellow instructors and dive-masters never got stung. Of course, the lionfish are native and protected, so they never tried to kill and eat them. Your story confirms my fears and I'll share it with my son. It would be fun/interesting to hunt and eat them in the Caribbean.