5 ms·

An attack of carnivorous Sea Fleas at a Melbourne beach

90 points by chadcmulligan 9y ago

chadcmulligan 9y ago
A follow up to my earlier post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14944815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14944815, not sure if this is the correct etiquette
cyberferret 9y ago
Well, that makes a bit more sense - I thought it was odd that they said it was sea slugs, because they generally don't eat any flesh unless it is dead already. Sea lice look like they are not so fussy if you are still kicking around. Listening to a friend of mine who works in the Sea Police here in the North of Australia - it sounds like if you ever needed to bump off anyone with little chance of getting caught, then throwing them off your boat in the Arafura Sea should do the trick. Usually when people drown, their bodies tend to bloat and they tend to float until found by search parties, but in this particular sea, the sea slugs will usually bore holes in a dead body so that the gases escape, and the body sinks to the ocean bed. They almost never find anyone who has gone overboard accidentally or intentionally in these waters, according to him.
- lobster_johnson 9y ago
  The first reports talked about "sea lice", which are quite different. The sea louse (or one type of it) is a parasite that famously eats the tongues of fish and "replace" the tongue by lodging themselves in the mouth of the fish. [1] They also had an "expert" speculating about jellyfish larvae, which are colloquially (but incorrectly) also called sea lice, but they are not capable of biting, only stinging. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua
  - robin_reala 9y ago
    Huh, I’ve always known a sealouse to be the aquatic equivalent to a woodlouse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligia_oceanica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligia_oceanica . Looks like I was wrong, or at least I learned a local name.
    - frenchy 9y ago
      There's also the crustaceans known as sea lice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse
- Herodotus38 9y ago
  A small note because I keep seeing sea lice written, but the culprit was sea fleas, according to the article.
juhq 9y ago
What the hell australia
bitL 9y ago
Australia? Who could have thought... Reminds me of that joke website (is it poisonous?). The first question was "Are you in Australia?" and if you confirmed you are, the answer was automatic "YES"...
- chadcmulligan 9y ago
  I was thinking the Australian stuff is a bit over the top, then I had a think, within an hours drive of me is the Gympie Gympie tree http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2009/06/gympie-gympie-once-stung,-never-forgotten/ http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-enviro..., there's a river where every now and then fishermen get attacked by flesh eating bacteria, someone down the road got bitten by a deadly snake the other day, there's snakes in the bush down the road, and of course spiders, so yeah, there's that.
- tomxor 9y ago
  Until you mentioned Australia I thought this was Brighton in the UK
  - lsh 9y ago
    I thought it was Brighton, SA until I read this particular article. Didn't realize Vic also had a Brighton...
    - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
      Every Australian state (but not the Territories) has a 'Brighton' Brighton, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Brighton, South Australia, a coastal suburb of Adelaide Brighton, Tasmania Brighton, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne Brighton, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton,_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton,_Australia
- idlewords 9y ago
  Australians like their badass reputation of surviving on a continent full of deadly animals, but the biggest killers in Australia, by far, are horses and cows. http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/12250/australias-most-dangerous-animals-a-decade-of-death/ http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/12250/australias-most-dangerous-... One of the remarkable things about the country is how few people die from the many venomous species there.
meerita 9y ago
Both feets were harmed when he went to the water to attract so many slugs? Doesn't sounds quite right.
pwython 9y ago
> and said the creatures were sea fleas, not sea lice as first thought. Not sure what authority suggested sea lice first. Growing up in South Florida, I can say sea lice are much more annoying than these blood sucking fleas he ran into. The former are basically mosquitos of the ocean. Hours after swimming, you're itching for days from tiny bug bites. At any rate, sounds like the kid has some sort of hemophilia that made matters worse and created a viral scare. He got off easy.

90 points by chadcmulligan 9y ago

A follow up to my earlier post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14944815 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14944815, not sure if this is the correct etiquette

cyberferret 9y ago

Well, that makes a bit more sense - I thought it was odd that they said it was sea slugs, because they generally don't eat any flesh unless it is dead already. Sea lice look like they are not so fussy if you are still kicking around. Listening to a friend of mine who works in the Sea Police here in the North of Australia - it sounds like if you ever needed to bump off anyone with little chance of getting caught, then throwing them off your boat in the Arafura Sea should do the trick. Usually when people drown, their bodies tend to bloat and they tend to float until found by search parties, but in this particular sea, the sea slugs will usually bore holes in a dead body so that the gases escape, and the body sinks to the ocean bed. They almost never find anyone who has gone overboard accidentally or intentionally in these waters, according to him.

lobster_johnson 9y ago
The first reports talked about "sea lice", which are quite different. The sea louse (or one type of it) is a parasite that famously eats the tongues of fish and "replace" the tongue by lodging themselves in the mouth of the fish. [1] They also had an "expert" speculating about jellyfish larvae, which are colloquially (but incorrectly) also called sea lice, but they are not capable of biting, only stinging. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua
- robin_reala 9y ago
  Huh, I’ve always known a sealouse to be the aquatic equivalent to a woodlouse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligia_oceanica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligia_oceanica . Looks like I was wrong, or at least I learned a local name.
  - frenchy 9y ago
    There's also the crustaceans known as sea lice: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse
Herodotus38 9y ago
A small note because I keep seeing sea lice written, but the culprit was sea fleas, according to the article.

juhq 9y ago

What the hell australia

bitL 9y ago

Australia? Who could have thought... Reminds me of that joke website (is it poisonous?). The first question was "Are you in Australia?" and if you confirmed you are, the answer was automatic "YES"...

chadcmulligan 9y ago
I was thinking the Australian stuff is a bit over the top, then I had a think, within an hours drive of me is the Gympie Gympie tree http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-environment/2009/06/gympie-gympie-once-stung,-never-forgotten/ http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/topics/science-enviro..., there's a river where every now and then fishermen get attacked by flesh eating bacteria, someone down the road got bitten by a deadly snake the other day, there's snakes in the bush down the road, and of course spiders, so yeah, there's that.
tomxor 9y ago
Until you mentioned Australia I thought this was Brighton in the UK
- lsh 9y ago
  I thought it was Brighton, SA until I read this particular article. Didn't realize Vic also had a Brighton...
  - TheSpiceIsLife 9y ago
    Every Australian state (but not the Territories) has a 'Brighton' Brighton, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane Brighton, South Australia, a coastal suburb of Adelaide Brighton, Tasmania Brighton, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne Brighton, Western Australia, a suburb of Perth Brighton-Le-Sands, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton,_Australia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brighton,_Australia
idlewords 9y ago
Australians like their badass reputation of surviving on a continent full of deadly animals, but the biggest killers in Australia, by far, are horses and cows. http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/12250/australias-most-dangerous-animals-a-decade-of-death/ http://www.bobinoz.com/blog/12250/australias-most-dangerous-... One of the remarkable things about the country is how few people die from the many venomous species there.

meerita 9y ago

Both feets were harmed when he went to the water to attract so many slugs? Doesn't sounds quite right.

pwython 9y ago

> and said the creatures were sea fleas, not sea lice as first thought. Not sure what authority suggested sea lice first. Growing up in South Florida, I can say sea lice are much more annoying than these blood sucking fleas he ran into. The former are basically mosquitos of the ocean. Hours after swimming, you're itching for days from tiny bug bites. At any rate, sounds like the kid has some sort of hemophilia that made matters worse and created a viral scare. He got off easy.