OK everyone, I think we're ready to make a start. Now, when you think of a dangerous animal, what do you think of? A tiger perhaps? Or maybe a leopard? Most people think that all dangerous animals live on land, but in fact, some of the most dangerous animals on the planet live in our seas and oceans. I'm going to talk today about one of these - the box jellyfish.
There are different types of box jellyfish, and they are found in warm coastal seas anywhere from the Indian Ocean to as far north as Japan, but the most dangerous ones are found in the oceans around Australia.
OK, so now let's examine what these box jellyfish look like. There are no prizes for guessing why it's called a box jellyfish! You can see that it's shaped like a box or a cube, with four sides and rounded corners. And you can also see that its body is light blue.
So, let's take a look at the tentacles of the box jellyfish more closely. It's got 15 of these growing from each of the four corners of the box. Now, you may be surprised to learn that these tentacles can grow to a length of three metres! And another surprising thing is its large number of eyes, that's six eyes on each of its four sides, so 24 altogether.
So now let's move on to talk about the sting of a box jellyfish. What is it? Well, a jellyfish has a lot of tentacles, and each tentacle has thousands of cells which can produce a poison. If the tentacles come into contact with a fish, or a person, they stick to their skin. If the tentacles are very long, they are in contact with a lot of the body, giving a bad sting which hurts terribly. This can be dangerous to the victim.
There are two ways that people can die as the result of a jellyfish sting. Firstly, a very severe sting can cause a person to have a heart attack. This can happen within minutes. Secondly, sometimes a swimmer goes into shock and can't make it back to the beach because they are in such extreme pain. If they're in the water alone, they'll die.
And now I'd like to conclude with advice on how to help someone who has been stung by a box jellyfish. If they have had a heart attack, of course the most important thing is to try to revive them first of all. And then, the best thing to help is vinegar. Yes, the same vinegar you use when you're cooking! Many Australian beaches keep bottles of it near the jellyfish warning signs. You should pour a bottle over the tentacles for 30 seconds, and then the tentacles can be removed. However, if you get stung and don't have any vinegar, you should pour seawater on the skin. This will help to ease the pain before you can get further medical help. |
