Jellyfish in Australia

Hi,
Recently I came across an video (youtube) of MonsterQuest on killer JELLYFISH. Surprisingly, modern science don't know much about this deadly marine creature. It made me to start search some information about jellyfish and came across the following description of Box Jellyfish which is i think most dangerous among them and habitat at Australian beaches.

BOX JELLYFISH are transparent and pale blue in color, that make them nearly invisible in water. It got it name because of the cube like shape of the bell. Each corner has upto 15 tentacles and can reach up-to 3 meters in length. Each tentacle has approximately 5,000 stinging cells known as nematocysts. They have 24 eyes i.e cluster of 6 on 4 sides of bell. Jellyfish can swim in water at a speed of 2.5 to 4 knots, approximately at the same speed a human can swim. These makes them even more dangerous to human.

As such they don't have brain or central nervous system (CNS) but according to Dr. Jamie Seymour, Director of Tropical stinger research Unit, they have some sort of intelligence to follow and hunt their prey.

They are mostly found near beaches and at mouth of rivers after a local rain. At this point salinity at shore drops to some extend which make them migrate to shore. But if the water is muddy they prefer to stay away from shore. They prefer calm water and shallow then rough and deep sea.

In Australia, Box Jellyfish are mostly found around northern Australian beaches, during October to May.

Stings of Box Jelly fish have several serious consequences, due to its cardiotoxic (effect on the heart), neurotoxic (damage to the nerves) and dermatonecrotic (effect on the skin) components. And cause dead withing 180 seconds unless treated immediately. One should inactivate the remaining stinging cells by pouring vinegar or salt water or urine over the tentacles. Iso-propyl alcohol (common reagent use in labs) can also be used. After inactivating stinging cells, then tentacles can be removed by hand or knife.

also check out http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6102347 for more information.

Hope this helps...

Swim safely.....