We convinced our newly-arrived-in-beautiful-Okinawa friend Ana (a PT coworker of Betsy) to come & experience the majestic Okinawan waters via a snorkeling excursion with us, the vetted pros. But instead of the promised mirth & merriment, we actually delivered rather nasty & painful jellyfish stings.
No, not the small larvae drifting about that we've felt before. These were some large, long-tentacled but extremely-hard-to-see-since-they're-translucent "sea wasp" "Habu-kurage" jellyfish (probably Chiropsalmus quadrigatus, now being renamed Chironex yamaguchii)! That's right, the stinging, get-some-vinegar-or-urine-on-me-pronto kind! Fortunately, there at Sunabe south (aka Water Treatment Plant) dive instructor Scott was nearby with a gallon bottle of vinegar (that'd he'd never before had reason to use) to help ease some of the trauma, after having just warned us & showed us the drying & dying specimens that local boys had removed from the area.
Ana was resilient & willing to continue to pursue her first snorkeling excursion in Okinawa's waters. Despite a 2nd failed nearby attempt, in which only Josh got slightly stung (but NOTHING compared to Ana) & also got a couple of good photos of the evil doers:
We eventually found successful & largely-jellyfish-free waters for some nice snorkeling action a bit further north, from the steps of the Kadena sea wall. The visibility was a bit odd (something, maybe pollution, was floating in the topmost foot of water for some of the time), but Ana claims to have thoroughly enjoyed it (we did, as usual).
We're hoping she has a speedy recovery & joins us again & gets SCUBA certified soon!
Highlights:
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1 comment:
Nice pictures of the box jelly. You might be interested in its revised identification. As part of my work together with a friend of mine I gave this animal a new name, Chironex yamaguchii. It's a longer story of why it needed a new one (http://www.mapress.com/zootaxa/2009/f/z02030p065f.pdf) but they're neat animals!
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