SEA WASPS!!!!!! Yikes!

[susan6868]

Gross, totally gross, but if it won't kill me, then count me in!
Thanks for the tips, for instance, I wouldn't have thought of turning my light off near the surface.
Just in case, I think I'll get a bottle of Safe Sea from divesports.com
A little insurance never hurts.................

 

[skynscuba]

A full wetsuit works a lot better than Sea Safe, but you could put that on exposed parts like face and hands. Sea wasps can swim faster than you can, something like 3 feet per second.

Page halfway down to the sea wasp photo. From Bonaire, but probably the same species:

http://www.b-v-i.com/Nature/marine.htm


Bonaire also has a local species, with color banded tentacles, which can be seen swimming at 2:40 into the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8UN-FjUyw

 

[nipi]

You are unlikely to get sea itch here in the winter. The season is in the spring between mother's day & father's day.

 

[susan6868]

OMG- GREAT video skynscuba! I was actually going to work today but now that I know there are diving videos on YouTube, oh well, another day lost!
(Don't tell my boss)
Anyway, that Sea Wasp was booking, but it looked like he preferred flight to fight so I guess you just have to stay out of their path if you see them. I imagine it would be easy to get "swiped" by their tentacles as they go past since they look relatively hard to see.
Again, thanks for sharing the video, loved the frog fish!

 

[Ed Jackson1]

The sea wasp can be very dangerous so I always wear a hood at night. I saw someone get stung in the mouth while surfacing from a night dive in Belize. He started to have constriction of his airways which would have been fatal if he had not been given epinephrine. Usually they do not kill, but the a sting to the mucus membrane in the mouth allows the toxin to be absorbed more.

 

[susan6868]

Note to self...................see about getting some epinephrine....................

 

[cfelliot]

I saw several of these just off of the beach at Sandals in Negril Jamaica. My wife and I followed a pair from the surface for 10 min. or so. They were very translucent and hard to see even from 3-4ft.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

A full wetsuit works a lot better than Sea Safe, but you could put that on exposed parts like face and hands. Sea wasps can swim faster than you can, something like 3 feet per second.

Page halfway down to the sea wasp photo. From Bonaire, but probably the same species:

http://www.b-v-i.com/Nature/marine.htm


Bonaire also has a local species, with color banded tentacles, which can be seen swimming at 2:40 into the video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8UN-FjUyw

I think the sea wasp pics & info on the BVI site are from the BVI, not Bonaire, although that species is also found on Bonaire Note the mention of a sea wasp sting at the dive site "The Caves" linked on that site in the sea wasp section. I think that's a BVI dive site.

 

[BKP]

I think the sea wasp pics & info on the BVI site are from the BVI, not Bonaire, although that species is also found on Bonaire Note the mention of a sea wasp sting at the dive site "The Caves" linked on that site in the sea wasp section. I think that's a BVI dive site.

Could have been BVI, I imagine (but the Dive Op boat had "Bonaire" plastered across it's stern).

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I don't see a dive boat at all in the picture of the sea wasp at the link.

http://www.b-v-i.com/Nature/marine.htm

The BBBJ is a just-Bonaire so far species from what I have seen. This is why I'm getting a 0.5 mm full suit for my upcoming Bonaire trip. Yeah, I know, Thanksgiving isn't the 'high season' but I've laterally outgrown the 'ML' size stuff I have. Side effect of the good married life and too much business travel (with business dinners) this year.

I've had great success with Safe Sea vs. pica-pica in Belize and Roatan in April and May, but it's just not enough 'insurance' for me since the BBBJ sightings have increased.

To each his own

You can also find info on sea wasp stuff occuring on St. Croix, they're present in the Caribbean but statistical odds appear to be low.

I grew up with Portugese Man'owar as a kid in South Texas, and I know how un-fun encountering those are, so I'm probably just a bit extra paranoid now.