Chinese tourist stung by Australian box jellyfish near Koh Samet

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Chinese tourist stung by Australian box jellyfish near Koh Samet

 

Image: Thairath

 

RAYONG: -- A local tourist board representative said that a 27 year old Chinese tourist was stung by an Australian species of box jellyfish on Tuesday.

 

But he said that the response to the emergency showed that training conducted for local staff was paying off, reports Thairath.

 

Mr Yang Yang was stung as he was swimming off the beach at Koh Talu off the Rayong coastline.

 

He was treated at the Koh Samet International Clinic in Ban Phe but was out of danger. He had wounds on his hand, his calf and both feet but survived the sting that can prove fatal in some circumstances.

 

Phitsanu Kkemaphan of the Koh Samet tourist board said that Australian box jellyfish were rare in these parts and were usually found in deep waters, not at beaches.

 

He said that he thought the arrival of this jellyfish was probably down to global warming and changing currents.

 

He put a good spin on the incident saying that training recently conducted for the Samet clinic staff by several hospitals on the eastern seaboard had shown their readiness to deal with this particular type of emergency.

 

This could only add to the good image of the Samet area, he said.

 

Source: Thairath

 

-- © Copyright Thai Visa News 2016-10-06

[realenglish1]

I love the spin
"The arrival of the box jellyfish can only be from Global Warming "

This is an increadibly smart Guy (NOT)

How in gods name without a study does he assume it is because of global warming

And this in example of Thai education ?

[eddie61]

OK, blame it on the farang jellyfish.... A thai jellyfish would never do such a thing.

 

Did the jellyfish have a work permit? Surely not..... Ha! The alien jellyfish was an illegal immigrant!

Time for a crackdown!!!

[maoro2013]

How the hell did it get here?? Its a long swim.

[Stokakrishna]

bad bad bad aussie!!!

[AlQaholic]

If the box yellyfish is in Thai waters, it can hardly be considered as being Australian....

[Sphere]

They know it was Australian because it was wearing wife beaters and thongs.

[PatOngo]

Bloody Australians!

[huangnon]

Lots of Jellyfish all over Thailand's coasts these days. Swarms of them sometimes.

 

Their natural enemy, predator and population-controller in seas are turtles. Unfortunately, Turtles are being decimated by people and plastic bags (sometimes mistaken for jellyfish) these days.

[Trentham]

 

"Phitsanu Kkemaphan of the Koh Samet tourist board said that Australian box jellyfish were rare in these parts and were usually found in deep waters, not at beaches."

This line is a lie and an attempt not to scare off tourists. Just about every Australian knows that you don't go to the beach during the stinger season. By making that statement he is endangering lives.

 

 

[williamgeorgeallen]

20 minutes ago, huangnon said:

Lots of Jellyfish all over Thailand's coasts these days. Swarms of them sometimes.

 

Their natural enemy, predator and population-controller in seas are turtles. Unfortunately, Turtles are being decimated by people and plastic bags (sometimes mistaken for jellyfish) these days.

another reason to get rid of plastic bags or at least charge for them. come on mr general, i will take back everything i said about you if you just do this one small thing.

[pattayadgw]

The person below obviously knows little to nothing about box jelly fish habitation / breeding grounds 'usually found in deep waters, not at beaches' ... a complete load of tripe!!!  Their breeding grounds are mostly in shallow estuaries / creeks / mangrove areas etc. etc... ALL SHALLOW WATERS.  There have been numerous cases south of Samet in the Koh Samui group of islands area as well as the areas off Krabi and along the eastern coast of Phuket.

 

'Phitsanu Kkemaphan of the Koh Samet tourist board said that Australian box jellyfish were rare in these parts and were usually found in deep waters, not at beaches.

 

He said that he thought the arrival of this jellyfish was probably down to global warming and changing currents.'

[AlphMichaels]

It was NOT a Box Jellyfish.  Guessing a Crown - large enough to have some serious tentacles.  The season seems to be almost past now.  They were washing up in south Rayong for weeks but last 3-4 days AM beach walks, nada.

 

 

[masuk]

2 hours ago, realenglish1 said:

I love the spin
"The arrival of the box jellyfish can only be from Global Warming "

This is an increadibly smart Guy (NOT)

How in gods name without a study does he assume it is because of global warming

And this in example of Thai education ?

Sea temperatures are rising, and maybe these guys like to travel.  They're certainly moving south in Australia as coastal water warms up. Seems they like the north too.

 

Crocs are also extending their territory.

[licka]

1 hour ago, Sphere said:

They know it was Australian because it was wearing wife beaters and thongs.

Silly me  I thought it had an Australian passport  in a water proof bag

[fvw53]

2 hours ago, maoro2013 said:

How the hell did it get here?? Its a long swim.

 

Countries can draw lines on maps to indicate their territorial waters but the creatures living in the sea don't care about this.

[TEFLKrabi]

Nasty looking. Happy that the training was useful and successful. 

[SteveSamui6262]

Don't you worry about the jellyfish.  The Thais will eat them.  I.e., jellyfish salad.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

This erstwhile Jellyfish has crossed into Thai waters with obviously no regard for immigration or Thai Law.This miscreant should be held and detained in a saltwater tank in the solitary section of a prison.The Australians should then approach the Thai authorities with an extradition order,demanding the return of the said fish to stand(or in this case,wobble) trial for breaking visa laws,and trying to enter a foreign country with a passport. 

[lvr181]

2 hours ago, PatOngo said:

Bloody Australians!

 

   

[sandrabbit]

2 hours ago, pattayadgw said:

The person below obviously knows little to nothing about box jelly fish habitation / breeding grounds 'usually found in deep waters, not at beaches' ... a complete load of tripe!!!  Their breeding grounds are mostly in shallow estuaries / creeks / mangrove areas etc. etc... ALL SHALLOW WATERS.  There have been numerous cases south of Samet in the Koh Samui group of islands area as well as the areas off Krabi and along the eastern coast of Phuket.

 

'Phitsanu Kkemaphan of the Koh Samet tourist board said that Australian box jellyfish were rare in these parts and were usually found in deep waters, not at beaches.

 

He said that he thought the arrival of this jellyfish was probably down to global warming and changing currents.'

The other thing he didn't mention is that in rainy season the jellyfish come closer to shore. If you look at a map of areas of occurrence of this jellyfish we are in the northern part of the distribution and the same goes for salt water crocodiles. I live on the mainland near Koh Samet and have never seen a box jellyfish washed ashore here but at the moment due to the heavy rains we are getting lots of other types washed up. 

[xtrnuno41]

He is still alive???

 

Box jellyfish, a class that includes 50 described species, have tentacles covered in tiny biological booby traps known as cnidocysts. Each cnidocyst contains a tiny dart and a load of poison that cause “the most explosive envenomation process that is presently known to humans,” according to a 1988 paper in The Medical Journal of Australia.

Once the dart pierces the skin, the cnidocyst shoots the toxin through the needle and into the victim. The toxin then enters the blood, where it can cause a dangerous spike in blood pressure, stop the heart, and kill the victim, a team from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, wrote in a 2005 paper in the journal Toxicology Letters.

[khundon]

What is required, is that someone contact Sir David Attenborough and get him to tell the jellyfish in no uncertain terms, that only Thais can "sting" Chinese tourists.

 

 

 

[Thechook]

8 hours ago, Sphere said:

They know it was Australian because it was wearing wife beaters and thongs.

I'm aussie, but what is a wife beaters never heard this term, thongs yes but wife beaters?  Definately not an Aussie term.

[Rancid]

20 hours ago, xtrnuno41 said:

He is still alive???

 

Box jellyfish, a class that includes 50 described species, have tentacles covered in tiny biological booby traps known as cnidocysts. Each cnidocyst contains a tiny dart and a load of poison that cause “the most explosive envenomation process that is presently known to humans,” according to a 1988 paper in The Medical Journal of Australia.

Once the dart pierces the skin, the cnidocyst shoots the toxin through the needle and into the victim. The toxin then enters the blood, where it can cause a dangerous spike in blood pressure, stop the heart, and kill the victim, a team from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, wrote in a 2005 paper in the journal Toxicology Letters.

I was wondering the same thing, are they sure this was the Box Jellyfish?

[jaffacake32]

My son was stung by a jellyfish off a beach in koh samet a couple of months ago. There seemed to be lots of small clear jellyfish in the sea. The Thai staff had a remedy for the sting of some kind of plant found beside the sea

[masuk]

18 hours ago, girluk78 said:

My son was stung by a jellyfish off a beach in koh samet a couple of months ago. There seemed to be lots of small clear jellyfish in the sea. The Thai staff had a remedy for the sting of some kind of plant found beside the sea

This looks like a blue bottle sting (portuguese man of war) currently being wash/blown onto Thai beaches.

Vinegar is a good first aid move.

If it was a box jelly fish, the scars would be large, painful and obvious.

[White Christmas13]

On 10/6/2016 at 7:06 PM, Thechook said:

I'm aussie, but what is a wife beaters never heard this term, thongs yes but wife beaters?  Definately not an Aussie term.

Yankee term for t-shirt I guess

[Loeilad]

I find it very worrying that a lo0cal official not only appears to be totally uniformed about "box jellies" but is personally so unaware of this that he feels he can comment to the press with complete misinformation.

 

"an Australian species of box jellyfish" - this is nonsense and needs to be corroborated - there are various spevicies of box jellies NATIVE to the whole region.

"Australian box jellyfish were rare in these parts and were usually found in deep waters, not at beaches." - this again is wildly inaccurate - the species of box jellies found in Oz are estuarine and swim along coastal waters.

 

Given the lack of knowledge exhibited by the spokesman one has to wonder at the accuracy both of identification and whether or not the appropriate forst aid and subsequent treatment was given and the possibility that the tourist survived DESPITE anything that the emergency services did.

"He said that he thought the arrival of this jellyfish was probably down to global warming and changing currents." - this is pure speculation as the box jelly is native to the region and what studies have been done do not indicate that changes in populations of box jellies are necessarily connected to climate change. populations rise and fall anyway.

 

basically they need to issue another corrective statement.

Edited October 23, 2016 by Loeilad

[Loeilad]

On 10/12/2016 at 7:20 PM, masuk said:

This looks like a blue bottle sting (portuguese man of war) currently being wash/blown onto Thai beaches.

Vinegar is a good first aid move.

If it was a box jelly fish, the scars would be large, painful and obvious.

If the jellyfish was NOT a box jelly thhen vinegar was a BAD move!

 

I'm not closelt familiar with box jelly wounds, but they don't seem to be as severe as most illustrations tend to be.