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View Full Version : Local Marine Life Hazard Series - Portuguese Man-O-War


ricki
08-08-2010, 03:24 PM
A friend's niece recently poked a scorpion fish, twice and complained of some hand discomfort a week later. Didn't hurt that much right after strangely enough. I told her I would send along some info on marine hazards for our area. I can recall seeing tons of information on this over the years in books. Started looking around and it seems most of the stuff is lumped together, Pacific, Atlantic, Indo-Pacific. So, I thought I would put together a list for our area of SE Florida, likely expandable out into the rest of the State and Caribbean.

So, here's the first entry on Portuguese. I have often said as hazards go, they are a far more real or frequent threat than sharks in our area. A bit out of season at this point but that may change in a month or so. This is from another post.

Sorry you were nailed by a Portuguese, aka bluebottles, they do hurt. Been hit more times than I can remember, even got put in the hospital once as a teen with a major overdose of venom. I don't recall the scaring being permanent, usually goes away.

Thing is, just like sharks, your best protection is understanding their "habits." The second best protection for Portuguese is neoprene in the form of a wetsuit. A knife will be of no use whatsoever, as with many (most?), other forms of normal marine life except for perhaps gently pulling tentacles off your skin once you're back on shore.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album580/4_beach_GOPR1628.jpg


Portuguese man-o-war are at the mercy of the wind, where it blows, they follow along with current transport. In my area of SE Florida, they come from deepwater out in the Florida Current/Gulfstream to the east. If the wind is NE to E in winter you tend to see them more nearshore. Had them today though with a strong S wind, likely bumped into shallower waters from the Florida Current. They are rare in the warmer months. They can be blown and carried by current into sheltered bays, like Biscayne Bay in Miami. They can occur over vast areas, typically tropical but are found in temperate areas of the Atlantic like the Med, around the UK. They also occur in parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

http://www.aloha.com/~lifeguards/portjell.gif
From: http://www.aloha.com/~lifeguards/portugue.html

The larger the float or bubble, the longer the tentacles. Wikipedia claims tentacle lengths up to 165 ft.!!!? I thought they maxed around 50 ft.. Anyway, you can be swimming along the bottom when literally out of the blue one of these buggers can nail you, across the face, arm, wherever. The tentacles contain small nematocysts. Nematocysts look like little harpoons, they fire embed in the fish target, or us, and inject some very painful neurotoxin. The toxin is intended to paralyze prey. For each inch of tentacle, there are a bunch of these harpoons.


19608208
A small 4 inch float drifts into shore. Its tentacles are retracted and quite short. They can run them out a good distance however. When you come up on them the float is driven first before the wind with the tentacles streaming upwind. As you can see when they are in waves they can become very hard to see.

The larger the float, the longer the tentacle, the longer and deeper the nematocysts fire. They tie the tentacle to you and everytime the tentacle touches you, more harpoons are fired into you carrying toxin. If you struggle are washed by breaking waves it is easy to get a nasty sting. The tentacles/nematocyts stay viable even if broken or on land for an extended period of time, they still can hurt. Thin sensitive skin, your face, between your fingers, toes, arms, etc. are more vulnerable than calloused areas like the heels of your feet.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album580/floAT_GOPR1947.jpg

The trick with man-o-war is to know when and why they occur where you dive or kite. In Portuguese season here (usually September through April or so), I am in the habit of looking along the beach and the seaweed line and in the shallows nearshore. If you see a bunch of fresh Portuguese there on the sand, good chance there are more where those came from floating in. If you see a lot or if you are particularly sensitive to them, best wear a full wetsuit, booties too might help. You can go in your birthday suit and there is nothing to say you'll be hit by any. The odds are just greater, any exposed skin will get harpooned, thick enough neoprene should deflect the harpoons. You always should be aware of your surroundings when kiting, right? One more thing to look for are Portuguese. If you're in the water say while sorting out kite gear or diving, keep looking to windward to see if floats are heading your way. Sometimes they can drift pretty fast too. Remember the tentacles stream out into the wind or current carrying them. If you are going to fall, try to do it well upwind, better still well past the float but not close by and downwind or current of it. Seaweed mats can be laced with active tentacles. If your kite goes down and portuguese sweep into your lines, they may well bind to the lines giving a nice task taking all that stinging stuff off later. If you're free diving, keep looking to windward/updrift for signs of portuguese floats. If you're submerged, well good luck as there isn't a lot you can do other than to cover up.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album580/solo.jpg

Usually, they aren't health threatening, UNLESS you get a major dose of toxin, and/or suffer an allergic or Anaphylaxis reaction. Had a boat turn around during the kite race to Bimini from Ft. Lauderdale when one kiter suffered a severe reaction to a fairly minor hit on his ankle. An Epipen (http://www.epipen.com/) would have been a nice thing on board that day. I recall even warning about the likelihood of Portuguese hits before the crossing. Usually they are just painful, sometimes they can be a lot worse demanding prompt medical care. Understand putting pee and vinegar on the stings may have fallen into disfavor, go figure. See the link below. As a rule, they are fairly easy to avoid IF you pay close attention ... but, not always. Wetsuits can provide some easy "partial" insurance for lapses. Staying aware and frequently looking updrift upon surfacing and before descent while diving can help as well.

Tips on first aid for man-o-war stings appear at:
http://www.aloha.com/~lifeguards/portugue.html


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album580/kite_beach_GOPR1702.jpg

ricki
02-05-2011, 03:44 PM
Just came back from a kiting session in south Palm Beach County. There were hundreds of Portuguese on the beach. Heading out I saw on average one per 30 square feet although at times you might see five clumped together. There are a LOT of these guys on and near the shore. It is strange to see so many with a south, near sideshore wind. Usually you see more with NE to E winds here. We haven't seen that many Portuguese this season, looks like they're making up for lost time.

If I am expecting Man-O-War I usually wear a full wetsuit and keep looking to windward. If you get dosed badly enough or are vulnerable you can go into shock after getting stung. Not a good thing if you are still well offshore. There are preparations in drug stores specific for jellyfish stings and other suitable treatments. They are now saying vinegar, Adolphs Meat tenderizer and even urine have been documented to cause nematocysts to fire in some cases and aren't universally recommended any longer? If you suffer the slightest difficulty in breather or change in consciousness it should be considered a medical emergency and seek professional medical care pronto! More at: http://www.aloha.com/~lifeguards/portugue.html They can hurt like a mother so the best course is to avoid being hit by them.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album580/beach.jpg
They were a lot thicker than this in some areas of beach and about a 3/8 mile offshore.

I understand they are thick in the Florida Keys as well right now.

ricki
03-01-2011, 07:00 PM
One of our members came up with the following treatment comments:

The article in was in emedicine, and was "updated last year by a professor and director of emergency medicine at the University of California. Essentially avoidance... of applying fresh water to the sting, treating with 4-6 % acetic acid (vinegar) for 20-30 minutes, removing remaining nematocysts with either shave foam or baking soda paste and a scraper - a credit card works nicely, heat to inactivate the venom, and eventually some topical lidocaine and or antihistamine, and systemic analgetics such as ibuprofen. People have even used CocaCola which would seem to be more prevalent at the beach than vinegar. If you are having your morning margarittas and lime or lemon juice is available, this is a good source of acetic acid."

ricki
02-15-2012, 06:20 AM
Lots of us have Portuguese impact stories, some of more serious than others. I must have been stung over a hundred times literally since I was a teen here, still this story sticks out for me.

It was 1974 and my good friend Heinz Richter had brought over about 130 fellow country men from Germany to vacation in Ft. Lauderdale. Ossie Pulyer was a German diving instructor leading a group of SCUBA divers on the tour. I took about four divers out to Cuda Reef off Dania Beach, FL along with Ossie and a student. I had rented SCUBA gear for the lot at Surf Sun And Fun on A1A just south of Sunrise the day before. The dive went well, with everyone on board except for Ossie and his student. The seas were running about 2 to 4 ft. swells with ok visibility, it was October after all.

I went up on the bow to checkout the anchor and the last two in the water. Both divers were on the surface. the student's eyes were large as saucers and growing by the second. Oh boy, he's panicking, no obvious reason why either but what the hell. So I dove in the water went around behind the guy and popped his harness buckles. I was pulling his tank away when it stopped, What?! I rented the damn thing as was responsible for returning it. Ossie was hanging on to one of the straps, as that realization started to sink in, along came another. An intense burning pain starting at the base of my left leg, working higher. I yelled at Ossie to let go, he didn't but it was about too late at that point anyway, had waited too long to move. Pretty soon it was over my back, hurt like a mother! Let go of the strap and hauled into the boat myself. Most of my left leg and all over my back had been hit by Portuguese Man-O-War tentacles. Must have had a nice sized float too, long, thick tentacles. Had some heavy 1/4 inch welts developing and lots of livid Portuguese marks.


http://www.fksa.org/albums/album586/mw1.sized.jpg


Shortly convulsions, severe cramping set in along real intense pain, confusion and shock. Went below looking for something to ease the sensation panicking a bit myself, couldn't find much, poured a beer on it. Well it least it didn't smell too good after, Bud and it did feel better for about 20 seconds. Didn't know about peeing on it and didn't think to bring Adolphs Meat Tenderizer either.

Everyone was onboard, I was more than ready to head in. I was the only one that knew how to run the boat, whoops. So driving hard at full speed I would steer through torrents of boat traffic running out of the Port on a busy Sunday afternoon.

http://www.cruisetimetables.com/pictures/fortlauderdaleflorida.jpg
The port inlet on a quieter day
http://www.cruisetimetables.com/

When the thicker parts passed, I would fall back in the seat and let someone else do the driving. It was hard to concentrate after all and short stints were about all that I could manage with the convulsions and cramping. Made it to Lauderdale Marina eventually, docked without smashing the hull in. Mike Driver, the dock master was a friend and helped me out with a quick trip to Holy Cross Hospital. Long story short, ten grains of morphine and all was right with the world again, more or less. My dad came over and took the boat back to the dock and I was released the next day. Been hit by Portuguese tons of times, most around here have, that was the worse dosing up to that point and since. Wouldn't like to have been on a beach free dive to the outer second reef when something like that happened. Long swim in and without flotation, might not make it.

http://www.fksa.org/albums/album521/Lauderdale_Marina_1974_aerial.jpg
Lauderdale Marina from around that time
From: http://www.lauderdalemarina.com/

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From: Dive Stories From Back In The Day
http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=8971