Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Sea Monsters: Them

Remember that ‘50s monster movie Them that was all about the giant ants in the sewers? If you don’t, hit Netflix and check it out. Seeing it on TV when I was in elementary school scared the pee out of me because I hate, hate, hate ants. Period. Ask anyone. Did I mention I hate ants?

Well there’s an insidious creature out there in the sea that gives me the willies just about as much as ants: jelly fish. They’re pretty and all but when those tentacles touch your skin you wish you had never been born. Or I do anyway. Being mildly allergic my first jelly fish sting was kind of like being hit in the sternum by a lineman’s helmet just as someone set fire to my arm. Now I carry Benadryl and vinegar in my beach bag. So, of course, no stings since then.

All the same, while doing a little research for the second annual Horror on the High Seas Week I found out that pirates would sometimes use jelly fish as torture devices. The most popular one for the purpose of getting a captive to talk was the huge, ominous globe shown above: a Portuguese Man of War. Imagine my horror when I delved even more into these delightfully scary creatures and found out that just one was not an individual at all but a group of four polyps banded together to form a colony. A Portuguese Man of War is not an “it”, it’s a “them”. Oh yeah, and it’s also not a jelly fish.

The uppermost polyp is a gas-filled bladder called a pneumatophore which lets the creature(s) float and bob in the current and sometimes be pushed along by the breeze. This polyp gave the things their name; someone thought it looked like a warship in full sail. The next polyp is the tentacles. These have been recorded at up to 165 feet but most sources agree that 30 feet in length is about average. The tentacles have barbs, like a harpoon, and are covered with nematocysts filled with venom. When touching human flesh the burning pain can be intense and the injected toxin will scar the skin. Depending on the number of stings and a person’s sensitivity to the toxin, a Portuguese Man of War can potential kill a human being. Especially cheerful is the fact that dead creatures washed up on shore and even free-floating tentacles in the water can continue to inflict painful stings for hours. The other two polyps control digestion and reproduction.

Portuguese Man of War eat fish up to the size of a mackerel and they frequently have parasitic fish called Nomeus that live in their tentacles, even feeding off them, for their life cycle. Some scientists speculate that the Nomeus acts as a lure which attracts larger fish to its host but is immune to the neurotoxin. The Portuguese Man of War ranges the ocean and sea waters north and south of the equator, including the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and South China Sea. Some of the largest specimens have been seen in and around Australia and they tend to range in packs of up to 1,000. Quite a sight, as long as you’re not in the water with them.

Because the Portuguese Man of War is so often mistakenly tagged a jelly fish, the usual cures for jelly fish stings are frequently applied to the skin when a Portuguese Man of War has been encountered. In fact vinegar, urine and other ammonia based cures only make the burning sensation more pronounced and increase the possibility of scarring. Cold water or, if at all possible, ice should be applied to the affected area and the skin left out in the air rather than bandaged. The worst of the burning will usually pass within an hour but trouble with breathing or continued or increased pain or redness at the site are a good sign that medical attention is needed.

And what of our pirate scooping a Portuguese Man of War out of the water with his cutlass and dangling it in front of his captive’s face to elicit the location of some treasure or other? Well, it wouldn’t be fair to spoil all the joys of Horror on the High Seas five weeks before we’ve even begun. Besides, I’m quite certain your imaginations can give you some inkling of what a clever pirate could do with “them”.


Picture via National Geographic Animals

8 comments:

  1. Ahoy, Pauline! Ouch! Quit it! That's gonna leave a mark... I've never been stung by a jellyfish (or a Portuguese Man of War) but that seems like it would be a pretty effective way of making someone talk, Pirate Queen.

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  2. Hmmm... I've always heard meat tenderizer works pretty well [but never considered the differences between jellies and Portuguese Men o' War...]. Powdered Alum, mixed with water into a paste, works even better. Used that on Kev when he got stung off Cocoa Beach. Early Nineties, I think?

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  3. Ahoy Timmy and Charles!

    Timmy: It's no treat but it was just the one time. I'm a little paranoid though in all honesty.

    Charles: I had heard about the meat tenderizer too and alum makes sense because it does have an ammonia derivitive in it (I think). It's not fun and I understand Cocoa Beach is quite the jelly fish haven. Shades of Spongebob...

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  4. I hate flying ants. Always get swarmed and look like an insane flapping fool on flying ant day. Anyway, when i was a kid I had a book on monsters of the deep. It was amazing. Might look it up again.

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  5. Ahoy, Sarah! Girl, I hear you. The ridiculously large carpenter ants up here sprout wings round about mid-summer and fly right into my nightmares. Gah!

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  6. Ahoy Sarah...I've been in and around beaches and the sea forever...will be in the Mediterranean in Oct/Nov. been stung by just about every stinger out there...I can tell you some are nasty critters and some not so bad..meat tenderizer and urine are a myth...vinegar is the way to go...I found stuff called StingMate..a gel like vinegar on steroids.. ;-) Spray bottle..good stuff and it works very nicely..also found applying heat to Man of War with the gel is very effective...any way, good luck and happy voyages..BL

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  7. Sorry Pauline...I said Ahoy Sarah...getting old and can't see without my glasses ;-) One more thing..According to triple blind scientifically observed by marine biologists and medical teams in Australia in 2007 involving 98 man of war injuries, heat at 113 degrees for 15-18 minutes was found to much more effective than ice..the report is in the Australian Medical Journal..heat so much more so, the test using ice was halted since fewer than 28% of the injured felt relief compared to 89% using heat...also, it has been proven vinegar and heat combo can and generally does prevent scarring...the stuff I mentioned, StingMate has worked for me (no scars) and I've seen it work on others...anyway, happy sailing and sorry for calling you Sarah ;-(.BL

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  8. Ahoy, BL! It's wonderful to hear from you. Thank you so much for your input on these fascinating if frightening creatures. I very much appreciate it. Stop by again soon. No worries on the name; I respond to just about anything :)

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