Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers

While most Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers are relatively harmless to humans a few do contain strong toxic substances producing quite severe effects. One of these Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers is the stinging anemone (Actinodendron plumosum), a blue-grey to light brown animal which can look somewhat like a fir tree.Found under boulders and coral, red bristle worms have numerous fine needle-like bristles which break off when they have become embedded in the skin, causing severe irritation.Although Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers are one of the safest animals on the reef to touch, the numerous white Cuvierian tubules, which some eject when irritated, contain a toxin which can cause blindness if it comes into contact with the eyes. This toxin may also be present on the skin so you should wash your hands after handling these creatures.

Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers

Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers Although known widely as stinging or fire corals, these organisms are, in fact, colonial animals (Millepora sp) more closely related to hydroids.Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers having a hard coral-like skeleton, they vary in form from large upright sheets and blades to branching, finger-like 'antlers' with a yellow-green to brown colour.Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers Effects and treatment are similar to hydroid stings

.Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers are sharp spines of this creature are covered with a thin venomous skin which, if introduced into any wound can cause nausea, vomiting and swelling. Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers Spines may also break off and remain embedded.Looking like feathery plants, and sometimes referred to as fireweed, hydroids are actually colonies of animals equipped with strong stinging cells (nematocysts) used to capture prey and for defence. Some species can give quite severe stings causing inflammation, swelling and pain lasting up to a week. Effects may sometimes be more severe.Divers are particularly prone to brushing against hydroids. Two species to avoid are this white, fine feathery one and the denser yellow/brown type. They can be found in fairly shallow reef areas and on structures such as wharfs.

Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers

Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers recognized as one of the greatest marine hazards, box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri)Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers kill more people than sharks, crocodiles and stonefish combined.Each year, in late summer, the adult box jellyfish spawn at river mouths before dying. The fertilised Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers eggs become tiny polyps which attach themselves to rocks in estuaries. In spring these polyps develop into little swimming Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers jellyfish which migrate down rivers, especially with rains, to feed on shrimp. Unfortunately, they frequent beaches which humans also find attractive. Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers the animal does not actively hunt, relying on food to bump into its tentacles. Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers a struggling shrimp might tear a delicate jellyfish, so it needs to be killed instantly, on contact,Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers with a very strong poison.Tentacles, up to 60 in number and reaching 5m in length, are arranged in four groups at the corners of a box-shaped bell which can be as large as a basketball. The tentacles are armed with up to 5 000 million stinging cells known as nematocysts. These are triggered into action when stimulated by certain chemicals found on the surface of fish, shellfish and humans. Contact with just 3m of tentacles can kill an adult.
Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers recent studies have shown that the box jellyfish is able to see through four eyes, one at the centre of each side of the bell. How it processes this information without a brain is still a mystery but the animal is able to avoid even quite small objects. They probably try to avoid humans in the water, if given the chance; stings usually occur when people blunder into them.Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers (They are almost invisible in the water.) It is certainly in the interest of the jellyfish to avoid turtles which eat them, apparently unaffected by the stings.
Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers another box jellyfish, Chiropsalmus quadrigatus, is generally less common than Chironex fleckeri, although it may outnumber them on Cairns to Port Douglas beaches. It is smaller, with slimmer tentacles, but the two are difficult to tell apart.Sea Anemones and Sea Cucumbers there are about 20 species, worldwide, in the Cubozoa, or box jellyfish, family, Chironex fleckeri is the most lethal member.