Brew: This video is sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends.
We all fear things that we don’t understand.
I fear the ocean, because how can anyone not be scared
of the idea that there could be miles and miles of pitch
black water containing creatures that would make H.R. Geiger flinch.
But the beach is safe, right?
Well... one Tiktoker thought she was just showing off a
cute creature she found on a trip to Bali, but
after posting the video, she discovered that there is
more to fear at the beach than a simple sunburn.
She learned that she only survived by pure, unfiltered luck.
Today, we’re going to learn about creatures that can turn
your beach trip from “fun in the sun”, to “dead on arrival”.
Just like how anyone who goes up against
this monster of a monarch is dead on arrival
in today’s sponsor, RAID: SHADOW LEGENDS!
Chill: Could it be?
Brew: It’s the bane of Kaerok Castle, the breaker of the
Palace of Aravia, the one, the only, The Lizard King!
That’s my son!
The warrior who pulled himself up off the
sacrifice of champions who failed me is back.
They say fight fire with fire, so he fought muscles
with muscles and stormed the Force Keep to show its
boss who’s really boss: a big, scaly fist to the face.
Or, you could drop his defense
since his damage is linked to it.
I guess a good defense is the best offense.
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Chill: Is that like a fancy BnB or something?
Brew: If by that you mean “Battle and Bloodshed”, then yes!
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You’ll find all of your rewards here, in this little
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Today’s episode concerns marine zoology!
It’s best to not handle any unfamiliar creatures,
but if you’re interested please consult
experts and take proper protective precautions.
And with that out of the way, let’s get into it.
Back in 2015, a crewmate from a docked cruise ship was
strolling along the beach in north Queensland while on leave.
The tide was low, and he thought it could be
a good opportunity to venture to places that
he otherwise wouldn’t get the chance to see.
As he walked barefoot in the shallow
water, he felt a sharp prick on his foot.
Upon inspection, he found a small
needle poking out of his skin.
Suddenly, he was overcome with terrible
pain, seemingly radiating from the needle.
Luckily, there were others on that stretch of beach to hear
his calls for help, so paramedics were called immediately.
Unluckily, this particular area was inaccessible
during high tide, and the water was slowly rising.
Not only that, the crewmate’s respiratory
system was shutting down, and he would die
unless he received urgent medical attention.
The crewmate was eventually rescued by medical staff
on an inflatable boat which carried him back to their
air ambulance, which spirited him away to the hospital.
What if he wasn’t so lucky?
What exactly did this to him?
Believe it or not, but the creature inside one of
these shells possesses a toxin that could kill you.
Chill: But that shell is so pretty,
how dangerous could it possibly be?
Brew: Well, just because something is pretty,
doesn’t mean it isn’t a terrifying killer.
It’s the Cone Snail!
A group of carnivorous snails from the Conus genus, which
have garnered a reputation for being cold hearted killers.
The snail, as the name suggests, has an oblong conical
shell, a proboscis aka a long tube mouth, and “an
extendable protrusion” that it uses for chemoreception.
Chemoreception, by the way, describes how living
things sense chemicals in their environment.
In human terms, it’s our sense of smell and sense of taste.
Cone snails tend to grow up to nine inches in
length, and mainly live in tropical waters like the
Caribbean, the Red Sea, the Indian, and Pacific oceans.
More active at night, they do the majority
of their hunting while the moon is out.
During the day, they dig themselves into
the sand to keep away from prying eyes.
Chill: See, they’re just shy!
That’s cute.
Brew: They still hunt, Chill, that’s when
we can catch a glimpse of their real nature.
They hunt using two main methods,
“hook & line”, and “net-hunting”.
Both employ a tool that is grown inside
the snail’s body called a “radular tooth”.
It’s a hollow rod housed in the proboscis that the snail can
fire like a harpoon to deliver a deadly paralyzing agent.
Chill: I guess that’s a little less cute.
Brew: In the Hook & Line method, the snail slowly
lures in prey with its proboscis, teasing any
unassuming fish with the promise of a quick snack
before it fires it’s harpoon, paralyzing their prey.
The second method, net hunting, is similar to
the first, except the snail will open its….
“Mouth” super wide like a net, and when it catches something,
it fires the harpoon while it’s prey is already inside it.
Step one of hunting, shoot your paralyzing harpoon.
Step two, swallow your prey whole.
Step three, dissolve their meat with
acid, then spit out their bones.
Chill: … It dissolves fish ALIVE!?
Brew: They’re paralyzed, but yes, very
much alive while they’re being eaten.
The harpoon acts as a gasket at the end of the proboscis.
The snail can pump venom into the tube
to build pressure that fires the harpoon.
As the harpoon fires, the venom fills the harpoon, which
shoots inside whatever unsuspecting fish happens to be nearby.
For a fish, being stung by a cone snail
is an almost instant death sentence.
For humans, you’ll feel anything between
a sharp sting, to unbearable pain.
At the spot where you’ve been stung, you’ll
experience numbness, ischemia—restriction of blood
supply, cyanosis—discolouration of the fingers and
toes, leading to necrosis—the death of soft tissue.
After the initial injection, symptoms will
progress from weakness and sweating, to muscle
paralysis, respiratory failure, cardiovascular
collapse, and eventually, a coma or death.
Each different species of cone snail produces a
chemically unique toxin, which makes it uniquely
difficult for biologists to understand, in
addition to being very good at killing things.
A single cone snail has the
capability to kill up to 70 people.
What’s worse is that since each cone snail
species produces a unique toxin, it’s nigh
impossible to create an effective anti-venom.
If you’re ever stung by one of these bad
boys, get to the hospital immediately.
But the beach is home to many creatures, some
dangerous and adorable, some, well, not either.
Chill: How bad could it possibly— oh my gosh.
Brew: It’s called the Fat Innkeeper Worm, or Urechis caupo!
Quiz: Well, it certainly is phat…
Brew: This particular species of spoon worm
makes its home in the soft sand and mud on
beaches along Southern Oregon to Baja, Mexico.
The worm’s family, Urechidae, has
only 4 total species on Earth.
Together, they’re referred to as Innkeeper
Worms, or more commonly, as Penis Fish.
Quiz: I regret calling it fat now.
Brew: I don’t really see it.
Other spoon worm species are well known as delicacies in Asia.
It’s served as Sashimi called Gaebul alongside vinegar
and gochujang, but this apparently sweet tasting worm
recently gained popularity in the west for their penchant
to show up on beaches in the thousands after storms!
The worms make U shaped burrows in the sand
that extend a few feet underground, with
a chimney-like protrusion at the entrance.
When the tide comes in, and their burrow is submerged
in water, the worm crawls up the chimney and extends
a mucous net before shimmying backward into the hole.
Chill: Ew, mucous net?
But why?
Brew: The net catches debris and food
particulates that the worm can slurp up all in
one go, spitting out any of the non-food bits.
Now, the reason that these spoon worms are called
“innkeepers” is because it has no problem with
other creatures that stop by to grab the continental
breakfast, aka bits of food stuck in the worm’s mucus.
It’s a relationship between two organisms called
“commensalism”, where one creature is dependent on the
other, and the latter is just kind of not bothered by it.
Chill: But what about that cute octo?
It didn’t even look mean at all!
Quiz: Oh I know all about this one!
This tiktoker is holding a Blue Ringed Octopus,
otherwise known by the genus Hapalochlaena!
There are at least 10 different species of this critter
across temperate waters from northern Australia to
southern Japan that live in shallow reefs and tide pools.
You notice the little spots along its body, right?
Chill: They’re beautiful!
Quiz: Yes!
Beautiful, and, when they turn blue, a flashing
neon warning sign that they’re ready for murder.
In nature, bright coloration is a signal to potential
predators that if they eat you, they’ll die.
It’s called aposematism.
In this case, the Blue Ringed Octopus’s titular
blue rings grow brighter when it’s scared.
As a rule, the smaller and brighter a creature,
the less you want to hold it in your hands.
Chill: But… I wanna hold it so badly.
What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Quiz: All octopuses—yes, it’s octopuses
not octopi—have some sort of venom.
The Blue Ringed Octo’s venom is 1,000 times more
powerful than cyanide, and theoretically could
kill up to 26 humans in just a few minutes.
Similar to the venom found in pufferfish, it’s a particular
neurotoxin called a tetrodotoxin, which is made as a byproduct
of a symbiotic bacteria in the creature’s salivary glands.
They use two types of venom from two separate
glands, one for hunting, one for defence.
The one for hunting is pretty bad, but the one
for defence is really, really, really, bad.
They typically hunt small crabs and shrimp.
Marine biologists believe that the octopus
either sprays the venom into the water at its
target, or it injects the venom as it bites.
After the toxin is injected, the octopus starts
chopping up its prey with its sharp beak.
Chill: Octopuses have beaks?
That’s not chill at all.
Brew: September 2006, a four year old boy presented
to the emergency department of a Queensland, Australia
hospital with severe skeletal muscle weakness.
About 20 minutes before he showed up, he was playing in
rock pools at a popular beach nearby with his brother.
His mother saw him holding a small octopus
about the size of a golf ball, which the medical
staff matched to the Blue Ringed Octopus.
The boy complained that the octopus bit him, and within
10 minutes he had vomited 3 times, lost his ability
to stand, and complained of severely blurred vision.
In the ambulance, his breathing became laboured, so
the medical team quickly intubated him on a ventilator.
The boy ended up on a ventilator for a total of 17 hours.
After they removed it, they kept him for observation
for another 9 hours before they discharged him.
Fortunately, he didn’t experience any long-term issues, but
this case illustrates the dangers with a Blue Ringed bite.
Notice that the only thing the medical staff were able
to do was put the boy on a ventilator—because there
isn’t any universal anti-venom for the octopus bite, the
only thing doctors are able to do is address symptoms.
The venom blocks nerve signals all across your body, causing
numbness, nausea, loss of vision, sense, and motor skills.
Eventually, it’ll cause muscle paralysis,
most notably including the diaphragm.
In other words, you’ll stop breathing and die.
Quiz: Hence the ventilator.
Brew: Exactly.
Oftentimes fear is a byproduct of ignorance.
The creatures we discussed today are beautiful
in their own way but they can be scary if you
don’t know what they are, or how to respect them.
Most wild animals, be they earthbound or seaworthy, just
want to be left alone in the tide pools they come from.
My fear doesn’t come from ignorance, it comes from knowledge.
Far too much knowledge…