7- Ross Saunders
Ross Saunders was back-packing across Australia when he stumbled upon a brightly-colored animal.
He was fishing with three friends in Queensland.
Saunders managed to catch a small, yellowish octopus with dozens of little blue circles
on its skin.
Fascinated by his find, Saunders asked his friends to take pictures as he posed with
his catch on his bare arm.
A video was recorded and uploaded to Facebook.
Soon enough, the real danger he’d been exposed to was revealed to the backpacker.
After googling the tiny creature, the tourists discovered that he had put his life on the
line by acting so foolishly.
Saunders believed the octopus was just a baby, due to its size.
Later he discovered it was a fully-grown blue-ringed octopus that could have killed him within
minutes.
The group of friends returned the creature to the water and decided to call it a day.
Saunders assured the press he’d learned not to mess with Australian wildlife after
his brush with death.
What is it?
The blue-ringed octopus is a highly venomous marine animal.
Four different species are encompassed by this general term.
These are the Greater blue-ringed octopus, the Southern blue-ringed octopus, the Blue-lined
octopus, and the Hapalochlaena nierstraszi.
They all have in common their small size, lifespan, and feeding habits, as well as the
fact that they’re considered to be among the world’s most venomous animals.
This dangerous octopus measures no more than 8 inches, which is about as long as a number
2 pencil.
They tend to be rather docile under normal circumstances.
However, they’re incredibly dangerous due to the toxins they release when threatened
or under stress.
Like most other octopi, this animal can change shapes with ease, quickly hiding in surprisingly
small crevices.
It can also use camouflage to hide from its natural predators.
When feeling threatened, its skin becomes brighter, with 50 to 60 rings appearing all
over its body.
This is a way of communicating its high toxicity to its predators, warning them to stay away.
In order to escape swiftly, it expels water from a small funnel in its body, which functions
as a way of propulsion.
6-Unnamed girl
A young girl went on a vacation with her family to Balmoral Beach, on Sydney’s North Shore.
At one point, she was running along the shore, collecting shells.
The girl rushed to her parents to show them her newfound treasures.
She was carrying the shells inside the top of her swimming suit and dropped them in a
toy bucket.
The mother was shocked to see something sticking out of one of the seemingly empty shells.
A man sitting close to the family decided to record the tiny animal.
It was a blue-ringed octopus, moving around the bottom of the bucket.
The marine animal then attempted to climb up the walls and make an escape.
He posted the video online and received several messages that warned about the animal’s
toxicity.
The man who’d recorded the images claimed that the mother looked like she was about
to have a heart attack upon realizing the danger her little girl had been in.
5- Troy McKibbin
Troy McKibbin was spending a day at the beach with his family, at the Ross Jones Rockpool
at Sydney’s Coogee Beach.
His children enjoyed swimming around in the shallow end of the Rockpool.
While watching over the children, 39-year-old McKibbin was shocked to notice a tiny octopus
swimming in the paddling area.
He was aware of the dangerous toxins possessed by the blue-ringed octopus and immediately
pulled the creature out of the water.
Children had been playing around it, unaware of the danger they were in.
He immediately took a picture of the animal and posted it to a local Facebook group.
McKibbin warned parents about its presence in the Rockpool.
The man offered information to the group regarding what to do if someone is bitten.
This wasn’t the first time this animal had been found in the area.
Months earlier, a woman discovered another specimen at the Mclver Women’s bath.
She was particularly troubled since she’d allowed her child to play in that area unsupervised.
The unnamed woman, in turn, warned others about the dangerous octopus,
Where is it located?
The blue-ringed octopus is commonly found in the sea surrounding Australia and all across
the western Pacific Ocean.
It prefers shallow and sandy waters, especially around reefs.
It’s mainly active during the night and hides away during the daytime.
The blue-ringed octopus feeds off tiny shrimps and crabs, as well as injured fish that are
too weak to fight back.
To capture prey, this octopus wraps its arms around it and bites with its beak.
It injects venom into the wound, paralyzing the victim.
The toxins can stop the animal from breathing and its heart from beating.
The blue-ringed octopus devours its victim once it dies.
Another hunting technique consists of releasing a mist of venom.
This occurs around the areas its prey most commonly inhabits.
Once the small sea creature swims back and suffers the effects of the venom, the octopus
leaves its hiding spot and attacks.
Females of the species carry their inseminated eggs after mating with a male.
These eggs remain in incubation beneath her arm for half a year.
The female blue-ringed octopus doesn’t feed during this time.
When its offspring hatch from their eggs, the mother dies as the octopi are released.
4-Mitchell Ogg
A fisherman by the name of Mitchell Ogg was working off the coast in Western Australia.
Ogg pulled a crayfish pot onto the boat and didn’t notice an octopus had squirmed its
way onto the deck.
Ogg was working barefooted.
Suddenly, he felt a mild sting on his lower limb and within moments discovered that he’d
been attacked by a blue-ringed octopus.
Knowing how dangerous this creature was, he immediately requested emergency medical treatment.
He was first examined by navy paramedics until the ambulance arrived.
Ogg was rushed to the hospital, overtaken by intense panic.
Ogg believed he had only a few minutes left to live.
He claimed he kept thinking about his family and how careless he’d been, neglecting to
use boots while working on the boat.
Fortunately for Ogg, he received urgent care and made it through the first 24 hours, which
are the most dangerous, and headed towards a full recovery.
3-Jamie Bisceglia
A young woman from Washington, Jamie Bisceglia, had decided to take part in a fishing derby
in Tacoma.
There was a photo competition category in the derby, and she was looking for the perfect
picture to claim the number one prize.
When she saw a small, brightly colored octopus, Bisceglia decided it would make for a great
photo.
The tiny creature was beautiful, and so she posed with it, placing it on her face.
Much to her shock, she was attacked on the chin twice.
Though the blue-ringed octopus has no teeth, it possesses a sharp beak used to create a
small puncture wound.
When feeling threatened, the blue-ringed octopus spits venom into the cut.
She tried to treat the pain for two days on her own but eventually went to the hospital.
She was given several antibiotics and had a swelling that kept returning for months
after the incident.
Bisceglia was probably lucky that the venom hadn’t entered her bloodstream, as the effects
would have been instant and lethal.
The wound most likely became infected because she failed to seek immediate medical aid.
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How will it kill you?
This octopus, due to its tiny size and docile disposition, may seem harmless, and even innocuous.
However, its venom is so potent that it can kill 26 fully-grown human beings at once.
Their deaths would take place within minutes.
Since its beak is tiny and its attack usually entirely painless, people tend not to realize
at first that they have been injected with venom.
It’s only once the symptoms show up that the victim understands that something is wrong.
This realization is sometimes accompanied by terrifying complications such as respiratory
depression and paralysis.
The venom possessed by the blue-ringed octopus contains several toxic chemicals.
The most lethal is tetrodotoxin, a potent neurotoxin.
This type of venom is found in other animals, such as pufferfish.
Due to the way this animal evolved, the toxin doesn’t affect it.
The octopus maintains a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that live within its glands
and produce the venom.
Before dying, the female octopus injects this neurotoxin into the eggs she carries.
This allows its offspring to generate it on their own, even before they hatch.
2-Sophie Pix
11-old Sophie Pix was vacationing with her family at their holiday home in Quindalup,
in Western Australia.
It was Christmas Eve, and Pix had been duck-diving with her younger sibling, Will, on the nearby
beach.
Both children had stumbled upon what was seemingly a handful of pretty, empty seashells.
Pix and her brother found a cone-shaped one particularly beautiful, so they decided to
keep it.
She handed it to her father, who placed the elaborate shell in his pocket.
He planned on cleaning it when the family arrived back at their home and afterwards
return it to his daughter.
However, as he pulled the shell out, once inside the house, a small blue-ringed octopus
fell in his hand.
To his shock, another octopus was trying to squirm its way out of his pocket.
When he researched the animals, Pix was terrified.
The blue-ringed octopus’ attack is usually painless.
That meant the situation could have turned lethal without the family even understanding
what was going on.
Pix called an ambulance, and he spent three hours under observation.
Fortunately, he simply suffered from a mild reaction to the octopus’ tentacles being
in touch with his skin.
How to survive?
The blue-ringed octopus’s venom produces a myriad of different symptoms.
It’s vital to try and identify the initial indicators.
Early treatment highly increases the victim’s chance of survival.
It begins with nausea, leading to generalized paralysis and even blindness.
More dire symptoms include respiratory arrest, heart failure.
If left untreated, the victim will eventually die of suffocation, after the diaphragm becomes
fully paralyzed.
Worse still, due to immobility, it’s almost impossible to call for help even though the
victim will remain fully conscious.
Children are particularly vulnerable to this venom because of their smaller size.
First aid is also vital for the victim to survive.
Pressure must be applied to the wound.
When paralysis sets in, and respiratory muscles stop working, an artificial respirator is
required.
This can happen only a few minutes after the initial attack, so time is of the essence.
Respiratory aid must be maintained until the venom is completely expunged from the victim’s
system.
This usually occurs within the first 24 hours.
People who survive a full day tend to fully recover from the attack.
Unfortunately, no antivenom is currently available.
1- Unnamed 4-year-old child
In September 2006, a four-year-old boy was admitted to the ER at Redcliffe Hospital in
Queensland.
His parents had called an ambulance because he was suffering from localized paralysis
and several other symptoms.
It kept getting worse by the minute.
The doctors discovered the child had been playing in the rock pools at a nearby beach
along with his twin brother.
His mother mentioned seeing him holding a tiny octopus, which was about the size of
a golf ball.
The boy told the doctors he had felt the octopus attacking him and that, minutes later, he
began vomiting.
Soon after, he couldn’t stand up any longer and began to suffer from blurred vision.
First, attendants noticed puncture marks on his hand, and this area was inflamed and reddened.
By the time the ambulance arrived, the child had trouble breathing.
When he got to the hospital, he was immediately intubated and kept on a ventilator for 17
hours.
He was only able to move his limbs again 15 hours after being attacked.
The young child was discharged 48 hours after being admitted, with no long-lasting effects.
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