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Showing posts from September, 2006

Whats causing those stings?

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Over the last several years there have been reports of serious jellyfish stings here in North Florida. Many have assumed that these were due to Portugese Man-o-War even though these easily identifiable jellyfish were not seen. It is highly likely that these were the result of a species of "Box Jellyfish" (cubozoan) which cause a severe sting that frequently leaves blisters and oozing wounds that take a long time to heal (you know if it's happened to you). These have been found in the caribbean , indo-pacific and recently South Florida but now appear to be in North Florida as well. I saw one of these filthy buggers last year ( and thats hard to do). They are small, about 2-4 cm wide, and clear with a slight brown peppering visible within. They look like a crystal clear cellophane box. They have 4 tenticles that can reach 150 cm and usually move about a meter off the bottom trailing their tenticles over the sand. The truely unique feature of the cubozoan jellyfish is t