Wednesday 28 July 2010

Weever Fish

Well with the warm weather we are likely to get visitors to the beach this summer, but not necessary welcome ones!


....I’m talking Weever Fish.

Above:- Grumpy looking Weever Fish

These pesky little blighters like sunning themselves in warm shallow water, nothing wrong with this, but they have sharp spines in their dorsal fins which if you step on them hurt like…um well it is excruciating. If you sit on one, it’s a double helping of ouchers!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10785371


If you are unfortunate enough to be on the sharp end the best remedy is putting the area in water as hot as you can take, (a footbath or ice cream tub) keep topping this up with hot water; normally bang on one hour the pain suddenly goes away. Naturally if the person has allergy issues you may also wish to seek and ambulance also.

Two ways of preventing a sting in the first place are (i) wearing sandals or crocs in the water or (ii) not going in the water, neither a good solution to be fair. We get a few in Swanage each year but given the hundreds of thousands of beach visits you would have to be pretty unlucky to step on one. I spent my childhood in and out of the sea most days and it would be fair to say that neither I nor my friends ever got stung.

You should try being stung by a lionfish, wow that really did hurt! Luckily they don't visit Swanage.

Just a little footnote......The Swanage Beach Wardens deal very well with these incidents.


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