Jellyfish are beautiful, graceful creatures when they are in their element. Fortunately, there are plenty of divers who dive into the seas with cameras to take impressive images for us. Then you see the graceful movements of the sometimes colorful, sometimes white and partly translucent water creatures. They are beautiful, but they have tentacles and inject poison into our skin via stinging cells if we accidentally come into contact with them. What to do then?
Jellyfish and jellyfish bites
- Jellyfish bite
- Jellyfish
- Cavity animals
- Nettle cells
- East wind
- Tips after jellyfish stings
- Jellyfish radar
Jellyfish bite
A jellyfish bite is not actually a bite. There is no mouth and no teeth involved. It’s more like a jellyfish sting, an injection of a stinging cell. Poison is injected into your skin through hollow needles. In any case, it is annoying if you have come into contact with the tentacles. It itches and burns and hurts.
Jellyfish
Slippery masses can regularly be found on the beaches of the Wadden Islands and along the North Sea coast of the Netherlands and Belgium, especially after an easterly wind. Those remnants of jellyfish can no longer wrap their tentacles around your arm or graze your leg. The jellyfish on the beach are dead, but don’t touch them with your bare hands. The stinging cells in the tentacles may still be active.
Graceful
The cave animals have no brains, eyes or minds. They have their gracefulness when they float in the water and their own mechanism, which is extremely annoying to humans, to catch and repel prey.
Cavity animals
Jellyfish are cave animals, just like corals. The big difference is that the corals become hard and stuck to a surface, while the jellyfish remain soft and float loose in the water. It’s almost all water, like jellyfish, 98 percent. Their pulsating movements with which they move through the water are of exceptional beauty: they make contracting movements, like a parasol that opens and closes.
The hat
At the bottom of the cap, in the cavity, there is an opening through which the animal absorbs food and excretes waste products.
Nettle cells
The jellyfish has stinging cells that release poison when you touch them. Small prey animals are paralyzed and the jellyfish then works the food towards the mouth opening with its tentacles.
With most jellyfish, the venom does not harm humans, but there are jellyfish that have venom that does cause a reaction in humans. It causes itching and rash, stings and can hurt. The jellyfish that float along the Dutch and Belgian coasts harpoon poison that is annoying but otherwise harmless to humans. There are jellyfish in tropical waters that come with poison that is deadly to humans.
Salt and freshwater jellyfish
The jellyfish in the North Sea are saltwater jellyfish. Freshwater jellyfish live in inland waters, but they do not bother humans.
East wind
When there is an easterly wind you will see many jellyfish in Dutch coastal waters. They wash up en masse on the beach. This is due to the undertow that occurs with an easterly wind and pushes the jellyfish from the sea towards the coast.
Source: Public domain, Wikimedia Commons (PD)
Source: Dario Romeo, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-3.0)
Source: Jolanda de Kruyf
Tips after jellyfish stings
What to do if you’re harpooned by a jellyfish? For example, you see your leg turning red and you immediately feel the itch coming on. A jellyfish bite and what now?
In general, it is best to rinse North Sea jellyfish with hot water or seawater and with tropical jellyfish (not an option in the Netherlands and Belgium) vinegar works best. Jellyfish venom is not resistant to hot water and acid.
There are some tips that can prevent worse:
- Do not rub the area, because this will spread the poison (the complaints usually disappear after fifteen minutes, so just wait for a while);
- take a shower that is as hot as possible, as it cannot withstand the poison, or rinse the area with hot water (not boiling hot of course, but about as hot as dishwater that you can still get your hands in);
- If you do not have a hot shower within reach, rinse the area with sea water;
- you can also cool the area with ice (wrapped in a tea towel, not directly on the skin) or with lukewarm, gently running water;
- dab with vinegar;
- apply a plantain compress; plantain has antiseptic and analgesic substances;
- If the pain does not go away after the first fifteen minutes, consult a lifeguard on the beach or a doctor. They can give ointment to relieve the pain and itching;
- In exceptional cases, a severe reaction may occur with cardiac arrhythmias, shock and loss of consciousness. Then it is important to call 112 as soon as possible.
Lots of jellyfish on the beach
On July 2, 2015 it happened again: many jellyfish were seen on the beach. Ecomare in Texel issues a press release warning about the jellyfish.
“Due to the strong easterly wind, there are many jellyfish on the beach. At this time of year there are several stinging species. It is no reason not to go swimming, but keep it in mind. For example, take a bottle of vinegar with you against jellyfish stings.”
Jellyfish radar
The Jellyfish Radar shows where the jellyfish are, whether you can swim or whether it is better to avoid the water for a while.
www.kwallenradar.nl
read more
- Swimming in the North Sea on the Wadden Islands
- Massive stranding of jellyfish on the North Sea coast
- Giant jellyfish in the Netherlands – phenomenon after a mild winter
- KNRM – Lifeguards on the Wadden Islands and near Wassenaar
