The Most Dangerous Sea Creature

[cool_hardware52]

I just read this http://diver.net/seahunt/fend/f_scottc.htm about the humboldt squid in the Sea of Cortez.
I'm not sure if this is accurate or hype, but I really don't want to be the one to find out.

Wow, cool link. Here fishy fishy fishy.......



Tobin

 

[Talldiverman]

I took a black spiny sea urchin in the knee in Hawaii last spring. It went right trough my 3 mm suit which is doubled in the knee. It probably would not have mattered if he had his glove on. I guess I got real lucky, I ended up with 20 or so tines in my knee and did nothing, no swelling occured and obviously no surgery. It just hurt a lot for a day and they worked their way out (I guess).

Rich

Man definitley gets my vote for most dangerous animal to humans in the ocean. We kill more people than any animal. Boating accidents, drownings etc.. we are a pretty stupod species :11:

 

[archman]

we are a pretty stupod species :11:

There's also over six BILLION of us.

 

[rickyd]

What about blue ring octopus, found in the Austrailian waters.


Hapalochlaena maculosa, is small and more common, weighing a mere 28 grams (1 oz). They are found in the shallow coral and rock pools of Australia.
While resting, the Blue Ring Octopus is a pale brown to yellow colour. The blue rings on its body only "light up" as a warning when the animal feels threatened.
Don't pick one up - by the time you see the electric-blue rings, it's too late!

Description:

• It starts life the size of a pea and is fully grown at about the size of a golf ball.
• They have a life span of approx. 2 years.
• Carry enough poison to kill 26 adults within minutes.

SYMPTOMS

• Onset of nausea.
• Hazy Vision. ( Within seconds you are blind.)
• Loss of sense of touch, speech and the ability to swallow.
• Within 3 minutes, paralysis sets in and your body goes into respiratory arrest.

 

[dbulmer]

Mempilot,
It was a documentary which featured some footage from the very same people!
I think the link emphasised the danger element. When 2 of the divers got away from the fishing boats the squid were not aggressive and were curious about the divers. The squid are able to change colour - red indicates aggression and white/gray their normal state. A scientist in Monterey, California believes they use this to communicate with each other. The local fishermen in the Sea of Cortez fear them as when they are aggressive they'll attack anything in the water including other squid of the same species.

 

[Kbeachgirl]

Which animal is the most hazardous to scuba divers?
a) Great White Shark
b) Tiger Shark
c) Barracuda
d) Sea Urchin

While nearly everyone chooses a, b or c, I am living proof that the correct answer is d. A recent ‘minor’ sea urchin stick required six doctor visits, antibiotics, steroids, surgery (not the wimpy out-patient kind, but an honest-to-goodness surgery in a hospital while under a general anesthetic) and physical therapy.

It started out simply: About two months ago I forgot to pack my dive gloves. I didn’t think it was a big deal, because the water temperature was 72 degrees and I’d been doing dives with students all summer without gloves (it gives us better manual dexterity to resolve issues students might have with straps, buckles, etc.) I led the dive and stopped to check how much air my buddy had left. A large wave swept overhead, creating surge that pushed me backward into the reef. Three tines of a sea urchin stuck about an eighth inch into the middle finger of my left hand, breaking off as they did so.

It wasn’t very painful and I wasn’t concerned, since it had happened before. The treatment was the same as for a splinter: Remove the tines and soak the finger in a very hot solution of water and iodine. The tips of sea urchin spines, however, are much more difficult to dig out than splinters. They are hard to grab with tweezers, break off easily, and have small barbs that cause them to dig deeper into the skin. Because of this my wife was unable to remove the one of the tines.

The next morning there was no evidence of any injury, and I wondered if the tine had simply fallen out while I slept. It hadn’t; about a week later my finger swelled up significantly, with lots of stiffness and tenderness. My doctor isn’t a diver, so I checked the D.A.N. website for direction. Their advice was a course of anti-inflammatory steroids. I showed a printout of the D.A.N. article the doctor, who dutifully prescribed Prednisone.

The Prednisone worked wonderfully. The swelling disappeared immediately … but returned worse than ever a week later once the Prednisone taper ended. The finger was sore and stiff and, if bumped in the middle of the night, would jolt me awake in a flash of pain. A return trip to my doctor didn’t yield much except a recommendation to see an Orthopedist specializing in hands. The Orthopedist, in turn, sent me off to get an MRI that – surprise surprise – confirmed that my finger was swollen and nothing else! Sea creatures sometimes carry a variant of the TB virus on their skins. The urchin spine had evidently worked its way into my finger, penetrating the nerve sheath and infected it with the virus.

His recommendation was surgery to open up the entire finger in a “saw tooth” cut. This would allow him to inspect the nerve sheath for damage, search for the urchin tine, drain and clean it before stitching it back up. This seemed pretty extreme to me, so I sent and e-mail off to D.A.N. They responded within a day and, unfortunately, concurred with the Orthopedic surgeon. While waiting for the operating room to be scheduled I took antibiotics but, like the steroids, they didn’t seem to have much of an impact.

The surgery took about an hour and required general anesthesia. No urchin spine was found; like a guided missile it delivered it’s infection payload and was then absorbed. The extent of the surgery, as well as the pain and swelling afterward, were frankly a bit more than I expected. The picture attached was taken a few days after the surgery.

I hobbled around for a week, hopped up on Vicodin and with a hand so wrapped in bandages that it looked like a club. To my wife’s immense credit I never once heard “I told you so” or a suggestion to curtail my diving.

It’s been about a month since the surgery. The stitches are out and the skin is healing well. The scar tissue, however, makes the finger very stiff and I still can’t bend it fully. The prognosis is good, although it requires daily physical therapy.

No one seems to believe that a small, immobile, non-threatening sea urchin could cause all this grief. Given the “saw tooth” shape of the profile, I’ve taken to giving out a more believable story of how I was bitten by a Great White while saving a small child trapped in a rip current. Even so, you now know the true story!


“Take Away” Lessons
- Always wear gloves, especially when diving through narrow notches in the reef when it’s surgy.
- Watch your buoyancy closely.
- If you get “stuck” by a sea urchin, be sure to remove all tines, then soak the affected area in as hot a solution of water & iodine as possible.
- If you can’t remove the urchin spine get to an ER immediately. Over time the urchin tine will burrow in too deeply to be removed. If treated immediately only a local anesthetic and a small incision will be needed (I know from experience, but that’s another article!) and it will heal quickly.
- Never turn your back on a sea urchin. They may be small and slow, but they are very hazardous!

Where did

 

[Kbeachgirl]

Where did you meet your urchin? I'm curious as I think there are different types all over the world

 

[Kharon]

A buddy.

 

[ps444mike]

i had a run in with several urchins in Greece just playing on the beach an running out into the water..stepped on a few an had the barbs all over the bottom of one foot.. ended up with some with a bad infection.. lots of pills an some minor surgery.. not fun..

 

[Anthony A.]

My wife hit an anemonie in Fiji a few years back. Was wearing a shorty wetsuit and it got her entire leg. It paralyzed her for a while. Pretty scary stuff. 4yrs later and there is still traces of poison in her. She hasnt dived since, but i've learned to cover myself head to toe when diving.