Australian teen's feet, legs bloodied by mystery sea creatures

Fox News ^ | August 07, 2017 | Travis Fedschun

[ETL]

An Australian teenager who went for a swim Saturday and came out of the water with his feet and lower legs covered in blood says tiny marine creatures are to blame.

Sam Kanizay, speaking from a hospital bed, told local media he went waist-deep into the ocean at Brighton Beach in Melbourne after playing soccer, and emerged 30 minutes later to find his knee and ankles bleeding profusely. ..."

Jeff Weir, from the Dolphin Research Institute, said the likely culprit was probably opportunistic amphipods, tiny crustaceans that latch onto decaying plant or animal matter to help break it down, Sky News reported.

"They are not there to eat us, but sometimes they might take a little bit, like mosquitoes and leeches and other things out there in the environment," he said.

But Thomas Cribb, a parasite expert from the University of Queensland, said it would be very unusual for amphipods to cause such extensive bleeding.

"It's not a parasite I've ever come across," he said.

Marine expert Michael Brown told Australia's Channel Seven's Sunrise program that he believes the small bugs eating the meat in the video could be jellyfish larvae.

"I've never seen anything like this," he said.

[DannyTN]

Olivia Newton John, I still love you, but dang! Move somewhere safe.

[shanover]

I have no cares about these things. I WILL go to Australia before I die.

[Boomer]

I wonder if they were some kind of variation of Piranha; the meat eating fish found in places like the Amazon.

[Maverick68]

Time to call Jeremy Wade?

[ETL]

“in remarks published Monday on Australian news website news.com.au, associate professor Richard Reina, with Monash University’s School of Biological Sciences, said he was convinced amphipods commonly known as “sea lice” or “sea fleas” were the culprits behind the attack.

“I think it’s very rare,” Reina admitted to the website, but he said Kanizay was likely chewed up so badly because he stood still for an extended period of time.

“He probably thought the pins and needles he described was the cold and didn’t realise there were crustaceans chewing on his feet,” he said.

Reina told news.com.au that sea lice don’t generally travel in a large group, but that once a small number drew blood, it would have attracted all the others.

“They are very good at finding food,” he said of the scavengers. “It looked really bad in the photo, his feet looked like they went through a mincer, but it’s a superficial injury and more like a graze than anything else... I would expect and hope he will recover pretty quickly.”

Kanizay was still hospitalized on Monday, but had been taken off antibiotics.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/australia-teen-sam-kanizay-attacked-sea-lice-brighton-beach-melbourne/

[ETL]

“Genefor Walker-Smith, a marine biologist at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, identified the creatures Kanizay had collected as lysianassid amphipods, minuscule scavenging crustaceans that are attracted to the chemicals emitted by decaying meat, the museum said in a statement.

Sometimes referred to as “sea fleas,” the amphipods will not cause lasting damage, she said.

“They occur in swarms, so they’ll swarm on a dead fish and eat it in next to no time,” Walker-Smith told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

She added that what happened with Sam was an “unlucky” occurrence and that other beachgoers shouldn’t be afraid of similar attacks.

“It’s possible [Sam] disturbed a feeding group, but they are generally not out there waiting to attack like piranhas,” she told the ABC. “The crustaceans would have swarmed off that piece of dead fish and onto his leg. He may have already had a cut, perhaps, and they were able to smell that wound or any chemicals that the wound was giving off.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/08/07/flesh-eating-sea-bugs-attacked-an-australian-teens-legs-there-was-no-stopping-the-bleeding/?utm_term=.5617094ed48e

[Hot Tabasco]

Not on the top of his feet......

[Axenolith]

He’s going to be farming those scabs for months!

[SkyDancer]

Oh yeah. Just about anything you can’t see to those that you can will kill you; and don’t make me mention the worst one. The Australian spike-noesed fart beetle. Those things will drive you out of your tent. It has been observed them taking small birds into their den’s.

[Billthedrill]

Yes, this is a fire tornado. Mate.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

Nasty.

Looks like he was playing soccer with sea urchins.

Holes are too small to have been this, however;

https://www.sharksider.com/cookiecutter-shark/

Unless they were some miniature variety.

[ETL]

I wonder if that was an ordinary twister that ripped up a propane tank or something.