SEA WASPS!!!!!! Yikes!

[Desert_Diver]

Okay,I'm heading down to GC in about four weeks, and have been reading a lot of posts. I was on the most recent "Night Diving in GC" post when someone made menton of Sea Wasps and wearing a 3ml to protect yourself against them.

I was on the Nekton Rorqual doing all three of the Cayman Islands Oct 7 to 14. We had sea wasps several nights. Day time did not seem to be a problem. You have already gotten some good advice on how to handle the sea wasps. We turned our dive lights off while we were still about 30 to 40 feet below the surface. We did our safety stop on the trapeeze at 15 feet without lights. We counted to ourselves to get the safety stop duration. When the second of three divers hit their "count" (a crude averaging attempt), we all surfaced while continually purging our octos. No fooling around doffig fins, we climbed straight up to the dive deck on the ladder.

Our entries to the water were not conventional. And we discussed this amongst ourselves and the dive deck crew PRIOR to entry. The lights were on at the back of the boat where the ladders were. We jumped off the side of the boat from a height of about three or four feet. We entered the water with our lights off. We entered the water with deflated BCs. By pre-arrangement, we signaled "OK" from UNDER water at a depth of 5 to 10 feet with our lights. All of this was designed to minimize our time at the surface of the water. We had discussed equipment malfunction contingencies before we entered the water and the dive deck crew was aware of the plan. There were only three of us who consistantly did the night dives, so this simplified planning.

Both Mary and Paulo were stung once each during the week. Both got hit on entry. Neither had any sort of serious reaction. Red skin. Mild pain. Lasted for about half an hour after application of vinegar. I didn't get stung at all. All of us were wearing 3 mil wet suits. Consequently all stings were to the face or neck.

My advice is not to skip dives, just take precautions.

By the way, the lights will also attract blood worms which the sea wasps love to eat. It is how the dive deck crew entertained themselves while we were diving. When they saw us approach on the bottom and turn our dive lights out, they turned their lights out too. Brain coral will also eat the blood worms. Blood worms, despite their name do not rate any higher than an annoyance to divers. Like gnats flying around your dive light. The sea wasps will not descend for either the blood worms or the lights, so you're OK at depth.

Art

 

[under water]

We didn't run into any problems diving a week and 1/2 ago, but we did get hit playing in the surf. All 4 of us that went had little red marks that almost looked like spider bites from the knees down. They didn't bother me or my mother-in-law much, but they caused my bride and her aunt some discomfort with itching for about 3 days. It is very much a person by person thing as I didn't even notice it until someone pointed it out to me and I never felt any itching or pain at all.

That sounds a lot like sand flies that were getting you on the beach.

 

[BKP]

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

Actually... this is the link I was referring to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8UN-FjUyw

 

[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

Hmmm - looks like your original post is the source of my confusion - note the text immediately preceding the BVI link in your post.

 

[susan6868]

Desert Diver-
Sounds like you had quite the plan. We're not that experienced and would be our first night dive there. I think maybe I'll wait till March and do it in Cozumel instead. I'll have enough anxiety on the first night dive without having to worry about the wasps and bloodworms. I probably will rely heavily on my light as well, entering without it and safety stopping in total darkness isn't going to be an option this trip. Once I get comfortable with the "bump in the night" jitters, I'll go back to Cayman and try it again. I'm going to print and save your instructions for my folder. Thnaks for sharing that plan, it sounds like a good one.
Thanks for the advice.
Susan

 

[Desert_Diver]

Desert Diver-
Sounds like you had quite the plan. We're not that experienced and would be our first night dive there. I think maybe I'll wait till March and do it in Cozumel instead. I'll have enough anxiety on the first night dive without having to worry about the wasps and bloodworms. I probably will rely heavily on my light as well, entering without it and safety stopping in total darkness isn't going to be an option this trip. Once I get comfortable with the "bump in the night" jitters, I'll go back to Cayman and try it again. I'm going to print and save your instructions for my folder. Thnaks for sharing that plan, it sounds like a good one.
Thanks for the advice.
Susan

Good idea. Never start a dive when you are feeling uncomfortable.

And I was a little nervous on my first night dive (in Catalina). Because the other members of the group were having buoyancy problems, I was down first and alone. Something was moving just out of the range of my vision. It was big and it was fast. Every sphicter in my body slammed shut.

But it wasn't, as I first imagined, a combined school of Great Whites and Tigers. It was a harbor seal that was quite playful. After I got the tachycardia under control, I had a great dive. And I never miss the opportunity for a night dive now.

So progress at you own measured pace and above all, have fun.

Art

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

FYI, we encountered a sea wasp box jellyfish on our Bonaire & Statia trip (just got back yesterday). It was on Bonaire, on Nov. 29, in about 10 fsw, while doing a shallow night dive (bottom was about 15 fsw - before the drop-off). This was the type with salmon-pink tentacles, not the BBBJ.

I was trying out my new canister light, and it tracked toward me once I illuminated it. The control over swimming direction it exhibited was even more amazing than watching a video. We scooted away from that area quickly after taking some pictures. I'll post a pic when we get the pics my wife took downloaded.

I wound up buying a 0.5 mm Scubapro Profile Silverskin suit for this trip, and I was very, very happy I had selected and worn this suit instead of my 2mm Seaquest X-flex shortie. My wife was wearing her Seaquest X-flex 3-2 mm full suit, which is her 'standard' suit - she doesn't typically wear a shortie as she gets colder than I do.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Here is is

http://www.scubaboard.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/64944/cat/2142

 

[havnmonkey]

I wish I would've had my Cam. while I was messing with them in FIBR, Roatan. Off the dive gazebo, at night, we sat there with our dive lights and attracted them to the surface and poked and prodded them.

One of our night dives got hit real bad as we came out of the water many of the people in front of me got nailed. I got a couple on my fingers and a brush-by on my lip. Everyone else was cursing and screaming.

The sting is not too bad compared to that of the Box & Irukandji (the only ones known to kill humans w/ toxin alone) which primarily reside in OZ. Many others can be fatal due to an allergic reaction that most humans do not have. However if you are allergic to Bee Stings you should take the same precautions w/ jellyfish. EPINEPHRINE keeps the airways open temporarily; until you can get to the hospital.

Man-o-wars and the "large flat ones w/ pink clover in the middle" that wash up in FL hurt the worst. Trust me I have been zapped hundreds of times!!! The little Sea Wasp is pesky but the sting will go away in 30 minutes or so; leaving a nice itchy rash.

Lycra will do fine, just rinse off thoroughly before you take everything off. And turn off your dive light on the way up from the safety stop... unless you want to be cool and get some pictures of them!!

Oh yeah, they don't really "die" right away; they are a colony of specialized cells--some of which sting. Once they've dried out then they're dead and can't sting.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

I wish you'd had your camera as well, so the photos could be compared.

This one's bell was about the size of the float (sans sail) on a Portugese Mano'war - trust me, I grew up in Corpus Christi by Padre Island and Mustang Island, I know what they are. This was no 'little' sea wasp, so you may have been messing with juveniles or ones of a different species. The tentacles on this one were about 8" (maybe the longer ones 10") long, the bell about 3" to 4" tall. I got a VERY good perspective since it was attracted by my canister light while my wife took the photo - it was between the two of us, so I had her for a frame of reference / backdrop at close range to gauge the size.

I have been hit by things which have a short-lived potent sting in the shallows while diving in the Caribbean as well, particularly at night (hits on my ears most annoying), but I'm confident they were nothing the size of this. Maybe those were juveniles, or (more likely) simply other members of the siphonophore or cnidarian legion.

Check out page 88 of the Humann/ Deloach Reef Creature book for description of the sting, then compare with the description of the Portugese Mano'war sting on page 80.

You can also see Captain Don's posts on the www.bonairetalk.com board on these - there is also discussion on the BBBJ there.

There was a fatality of a 4 year old boy in Galveston in 1990 attributed not to the Portugese Mano'war, but to a box jelly fish.

http://www.smithsonianmagazine.com/issues/2005/june/killers.php?page=3

http://www.usla.org/PublicInfo/library/Treatment_of_Marine_Stings.pdf

There are only 3 deaths in the USA from Portugese Mano'war shown in the documents.

I have been hit by Portugese mano'war as a kid, and, as an adult, once by a bearded fireworm on the top and side of my big toe while wading barefoot at dusk in the shallows (knee deep) and coral rubble on Curacao at Jan Thiel beach. Both of those rank at the top of my list for stings I've encountered.

I have no desire to personally experience the sting of what we saw and photographed for comparison.