Deadly Jellyfish Plague invades Australia Coast
Pastor Dale Morgan
Deadly Jellyfish Plague invades Australia Coast*
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 3:28pm BST 28/03/2007
A deadly species of jellyfish, translucent and the size of a thumbnail,
is spreading along Australia’s coastline as a result of global warming,
scientists warned today.
A deadly Irukandji jellyfish
Irukandji jellyfish are among the world’s most toxic creatures – all but
impossible to detect in the water but packing a potentially lethal punch
belying their tiny size.
Until recently it was thought that they were confined to Australia’s
northern tropical waters, but marine biologists have now found them off
Queensland’s Fraser Island — a popular tourist spot about 400 miles
south of their previously assumed range.
Their discovery has halted production of a Hollywood film, Fool’s Gold,
starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, who were originally due to
be filmed swimming in the sea. Dr Jamie Seymour, from James Cook
University, said she had found five of the animals off the island.
“You can’t now say the waters around Fraser Island are jellyfish safe. I
mean, these animals have the potential to kill you,” he told ABC radio.
“The ones we were catching weren’t any bigger than your thumbnail.
They’ve got tentacles that are probably a half to three quarters of a
metre long, and pretty much transparent. So unless you really know what
you’re looking for, you’re not going to see them in the water.”
If they migrate south in sufficient numbers, irukandji would threaten
the safety of swimmers, surfers and snorkellers along southern
Queensland’s Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast holiday destinations.
Little is known about their biology but their toxicity is legendary. One
of the tiny jellyfish was blamed for killing a 58-year-old British
tourist, Richard Jordan, in the Whitsunday Islands of Queensland in
2002. A few months later, a 44-year-old American tourist was stung and
also died.
Increased sea temperatures caused by global warming would extend the
species’ range south, Dr Seymour said. But the tourism industry said it
would be alarmist and premature to warn tourists of the new threat to
their safety.
“We don’t want a perception to spread that every Sunshine Coast beach is
a killing field,” said Daniel Gschwind, the head of the Queensland
Tourism Industry Council.