box jellyfish

[papafarang]

those jellyfish that killed the german woman, apparently there's been 3 deaths in the same area since august . now thinking about it if in a small area of Australia 3 people were killed by sharks in 3 months would it be safe to say the authorities would have closed the beach ? or would signs like this be considered tarnishing the image of Thailand ?
there will always be accidents with the sea, but for a place that relies on beach holidays their a bit easy going about safety for tourist. quite honestly I love the sea, but seeing warning signs does stop me going in, sharks, jellyfish ,riptides , salt water crocodiles, stonefish just a few things that would make me head to the swimming pool instead. these jellyfish must be seasonal . so it's safe to say beaches should be closed for some months while there's active danger. just a thought

[Barney]

those jellyfish that killed the german woman, apparently there's been 3 deaths in the same area since august . now thinking about it if in a small area of Australia 3 people were killed by sharks in 3 months would it be safe to say the authorities would have closed the beach ? or would signs like this be considered tarnishing the image of Thailand ?
there will always be accidents with the sea, but for a place that relies on beach holidays their a bit easy going about safety for tourist. quite honestly I love the sea, but seeing warning signs does stop me going in, sharks, jellyfish ,riptides , salt water crocodiles, stonefish just a few things that would make me head to the swimming pool instead. these jellyfish must be seasonal . so it's safe to say beaches should be closed for some months while there's active danger. just a thought

Papafarang was she killed in Thailand? Or another idyllic spot?

[BobHelm]

Koh Samui, Lamai beach, fairly early at night.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... -jellyfish

[Barney]

Koh Samui, Lamai beach, fairly early at night.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... -jellyfish

Thanks Bob,

Sad end for this girl and an extremely painful death.
The article ends by advising up to 12 deaths ove a decade or so have occurred. That's a lot of people plus 900 stung by varieties of jelly fish.
I had no idea Thailand was a place where it was a problem.
You would think warnings would be every where as in say Far North Queensland and it would be general knowledge in tourist information packages.
Some years ago in Australia there was a question of where they came from when an epidemic of stings was apparent and it was always asked why there were no stings on the great barrier reef, it was explained they were breeding in the small creeks and rivers and once mature ventured out to feed. They stayed close to the main land as swimming to far out exposed them to rough seas. The main predator was a couple of turtle breeds which were seen to be in decline in the areas of attack, allowing plague proportions.

[FrazeeDK]

Koh Samui, Hua Hin and Cha-Am are the windward side of the Gulf of Thailand.. jellyfish tend to get blown in-shore or up on the beach.. We had a friend visiting Hua Hin a couple of years ago tread on one in the sand.. Definitely agony..

[rick]

In the Northern territory of Australia Box jellyfish were a danger mainly in the wet season, supposedly because the freshwater stimulates shrimps to breed which the jellyfish eat. There were advisory notices but some ignored them. The only person i knew who was stung was in the dry season (and a week after i had been swimming on the same beach!) - the scars it leaves are horrendous - they may fade after a while, but look like you were dragged through barbed wire. And yes, they can be found across all of SE Asia. Tip - take a bottle of vinegar with you - best first aid treatment for the stings.

[wazza]

Rick

vinegar no longer advised

I treated quite a few in Darwin with these stings, we used Morphine and the scars are horrendous.