In 2010 a woman was having the time of her life swimming in the azure waters off the
coast of Sardinia.
Suddenly she felt something against her leg and it stung badly, so she immediately made
her way back to the shore.
A witness to the event later told the media that when she emerged from the water she was
limping and screaming.
The lifeguard on the beach took one look at her leg and told her that she’d been stung
by the ocean’s least loved inhabitant, the Portuguese Man of War.
We won’t tell you just yet what happened to this woman, and instead will tell you something
about this floating ship of pain.
First of all you’re probably wondering how it got such a strange name.
You can say Man of War, but some people like to call the Portuguese man o' war.
It makes no difference.
The name comes from an 18th-century sailing warship, which when at full sail looked like
the jellyfish.
We say jellyfish, but that’s not exactly true.
These things are actually something called siphonophores, which are multiple organisms
living together to form a whole.
Jellyfish are one single animal, so when you think about the man of war imagine a lot of
little living things joined together to make one thing.
What’s really cool about this colony is that one of the organisms can’t survive
on its own, so they all get together to form a veritable killing machine.
They communicate with each other and go out and catch food, as well as sting swimmers
of the human form.
These things don’t actually have the ability to move about at will and are instead pushed
around by the water and wind.
That bag you see that looks like a sail is filled with gas, and what’s so cool about
this is when its attacked it can actually deflate its gaseous sail and the colonies
can submerge under the water.
Trailing behind it are its tentacles.
These can stretch to as long as 33 feet (10 meters) but they have been known to have tentacles
that are almost 100 feet (over 30 meters).
It uses these tentacles for fishing, like a trawler, and it's very efficient.
The problem for you and me is those long tentacles are filled with venom.
That venom can paralyze and kill its prey, and for us they can produce a very nasty sting.
It happens a lot, too, with Australia reporting about 10,000 man of war stings every summer.
Suffice to say, for beach-loving Ozzies the man of war is literally a right pain in the
behind.
Those tentacles are really hard to see because they are translucent, and worst still even
after they have detached from the body they can still sting.
We at the Infographics have experienced this first-hand, and we can tell you that the pain
was pretty bad.
Not only that, when you get out of the water you look like someone has whipped you.
Quite often people are stung on the beach itself, because these men of war get washed
up.
They are not always easy to see being a translucent hue of blue, and so many people get their
sting in the foot.
Kids have been known to pick them up and put them in their mouth, which is dangerous because
the throat can swell.
We suggest you don’t do that.
The pain should go down within a couple of hours, but those bright red welts will hang
around for a while, maybe one to three days.
Now, we are guessing you have all heard the story of someone being stung and then racing
back to the beach, whereupon the victim entreats his buddies to urinate on him.
That guy read somewhere on the internet that this stops the pain.
We should tell you that you don’t need to go through this humbling experience, because
pee will do absolutely nothing to reduce the pain.
A golden shower is certainly not the requisite first aid procedure, so don’t go there.
The Smithsonian writes that it will actually do more harm than good.
That magazine wrote, “It turns out that rinsing the sting with vinegar then immersing
the area in water 113 degrees Fahrenheit or hotter for 45 minutes will deactivate and
rinse away the cnidae as well as deactivate the venom already injected.”
The cnidae are the cells that do you the damage and kill fish.
They are single use, meaning after the sting they are finished.
Some sources do say put warm saltwater on the wound, but newer research suggests you
shouldn’t do that.
Definitely don’t put fresh water on the welts, that will cause more pain.
Quite a lot of people get stung in the USA, with 204 cases reported in one part of Florida
in 2018.
While most of the time this will result in a person getting out of the water and shouting
a cocktail of expletives, some folks will suffer a bit more.
They might experience a racing heart, or even throw up.
The good news is that if you die you are one in a million, but it can happen.
One unlucky guy got stung in Florida in 1987 and he died from cardiovascular collapse.
Portuguese men o’ war have a hard life, too, though, because some sea turtles and
some fish like to eat them.
One of its worst enemies is the ‘blue dragon’ sea slug.
These things not only eat the man of war but they steal its toxins to use for themselves
on their own prey.
The real horror that humans might face would of course be getting stung by a lot of these
things at once.
That would be like numerous whips striking your body at the same time.
In fact, sometimes men of war get together in what are referred to as legions, and there
might be a thousand of them all huddled together.
Swim through that and you better start praying.
When the wind blows you might find these legions at a beach near you, but usually there should
be a warning sign.
We don’t want to worry you too much, because the man of war stings thousands and thousands
of people each year and deaths seldom happen.
If you want some advice regarding how not to get stung though, we will give you some.
One, if it looks dead don’t touch it.
It can still sting.
Two, look out for warning flags and if the lifeguard says don’t go in the water then
you should listen to him.
Three, if you do get stung and you start to have a bad reaction don’t think its sting
is like the sting of a bee.
Scientists tell us that a shot of epinephrine won’t make the reaction go down and could
even be very dangerous.
If you can’t breathe or feel dizzy you need to seek medical attention right away.
The National Institutes of Health conducted studies and while it said more studies need
to be done the hot water and vinegar approach is sound.
In severe reactions some antihistamines and a hypertension drug called Reserpine have
saved the day.
In one case a person suffered cardio-respiratory arrest after a sting and an antihistamine
reversed it.
As for the woman we introduced at the start of the show, well, she got very unlucky because
the sting from the jellyfish sent her into shock.
No sooner than she got out of the water and approached that lifeguard she collapsed to
the ground.
She didn’t make it unfortunately.
This was the only recorded case of a jellyfish fatality in that area, and the good news is
that hundreds of people reported being stung around Sardinia just that year.
Have you been stung by one of these?
How did that go down?
Tell us in the comments.
Also be sure to check out our other video What If a Whale Accidentally Swallowed You?
Thanks for watching, and as always, don’t forget to like, share and subscribe.
See you next time.