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Mystery 'Sea Bugs' Attack Melbourne Wader

skinny

skinny

Nigh
Joined
May 30, 2010
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This is alarming for the casual coastal Aussie, which is pretty much all of us. This lad had finished a soccer game and spent half an hour in the drink cooling his legs as part of his recovery to lower his lactics. It wasn't until he had returned home and had a shower that he discovered he'd been violated in a way he'll never forget.

I've been stung by sea lice, but this is unknown. I dread to think we have a new strain that will keep us out of the water. The place would die of stress.

Full story at the link.
Warning: very bloody images
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-07/brighton-sea-bugs-ocean-swim-teenager/8780138
 
skinny said:
This is alarming for the casual coastal Aussie, which is pretty much all of us. This lad had finished a soccer game and spent half an hour in the drink cooling his legs as part of his recovery to lower his lactics. It wasn't until he had returned home and had a shower that he discovered he'd been violated in a way he'll never forget.

I've been stung by sea lice, but this is unknown. I dread to think we have a new strain that will keep us out of the water. The place would die of stress.

Full story at the link.
Warning: very bloody images
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-07/brighton-sea-bugs-ocean-swim-teenager/8780138
Click to expand...
Just imagine this happening at a full beach. It will create hysteria when several hundred people are attacked at the same time. Is global warming to blame?
 
kamalktk said:
You should call the syfy channel and pitch that movie, like right now. Combine it with some tornados and sharks.
Click to expand...
Funny, that! Exactly what I was thinking!
The next horror film theme...right there.
 
E..Gads! Yet another reason to avoid Australia. That joint is like some kind of giant bio-death trap. Great Whites vacation spot, the worlds most deadly snakes, ant's that can kill, spiders the size of pancakes, and politicians who seem to have done their understudy with Stalin. What next?
 
Apparently the way to avoid being eaten by these beasties is to keep moving about. But doesn't movement attract sharks?
 
Gambeir said:
E..Gads! Yet another reason to avoid Australia. That joint is like some kind of giant bio-death trap. Great Whites vacation spot, the worlds most deadly snakes, ant's that can kill, spiders the size of pancakes, and politicians who seem to have done their understudy with Stalin. What next?
Click to expand...

You forgot to mention this delightful creature
saltwater-crocodiles-1.jpg
 
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Lysianassid amphipods

From the link:
The creatures behind an alarming incident in Brighton over the weekend have been identified as amphipods, and they usually don't go around attacking people like piranhas, a Museums Victoria marine biologist says.
8782686-3x2-700x467.jpg


Moral of the story: don't stand in winter water near a dead fish for more time than it takes for your legs to go numb.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-...atures-identified-by-musuems-victoria/8782634
 
OK, calm down. They're generally pretty harmless. The theory I've seen is that he disturbed a dead fish or something that they were feeding on, and they got confused. If he hadn't been overheated, and the water hadn't been so cold, he might have noticed before it got quite so gruesome, but even so it's mostly just the anti-coagulant in their saliva that made it look worse than it is.

On balance, these things don't even rank in the list of things that might kill you on Australian beaches.

Then again, on a Fortean note, this might explain what happened to Harold Holt...
 
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