JELLIFIED

When SafeSea first came out, I wrote about jellyfish stings for National Geographic Adventure magazine, which has since gone out of business. In any event, I got to interview the Israeli marine biologist who invented the stuff. Here's an excerpt from my article: Millions of diehard beach adventurers each year feel some form of the tentacle's lash. If anything, the problem may be getting worse. According to a recent report in Science, the populations of certain jellyfish species are exploding in several areas of the world, including the Gulf of Mexico. Though most victims suffer no lasting ill-effects, a minefield of even the most mild-stinging jellyfish can make an otherwise great day at the beach seem anything but. "Most vacationers and ocean explorers are ill prepared to deal with jellyfish in general," Paul Auerbach, MD, a Stanford University expert on marine envenomation and author of the invaluable Medicine for the Outdoors (The Lyons Press, 2003). Not that the news is uniformly dire. In what Auerbach describes as the "most significant advance" he's seen in twenty years of providing clinical advice on the subject, a new product recently developed by marine biologists in Israel has been shown in clinical trials to successfully block the firing mechanism of numerous species of coelenterates. The only product of its type registered with the FDA, SafeSea combines a jellyfish sting inhibitor with sun block. "A jellyfish sting is one of the most rapid mechanical events in nature," explains SafeSea inventor, Amit Lotan, Ph.D., a marine biologist who has spent more than a decade studying the the biomechanics of a sting. "The needle penetrates into the skin of a human or other 'prey' with a force akin to that of a bullet fired from a gun." Depending on the species you happen to get shot by, symptoms can range from almost nothing at all (the moon jelly or Aurelia aurita, a common squishy fixture on Atlantic beaches, has an extremely mild sting) to moderately maddening vexation (sea bather's eruption is caused by thimble jellyfish and larval anemones, which typically leave red, itchy bumps on the skin underneath your bathing suit) to agony (the Portuguese man of war, or Physalia physalis, each year sends dozens of victims to hospitals with excruciating stings characterized by welts and blisters). Lotan, whose work on the toxin delivery pathway of jellyfish was first published in Nature, says he and his colleagues modeled SafeSea in part on naturally occurring compounds in the skin surface of clown fish, which live unharmed among stinging sea anemones, and certain snails, which eat jellyfish. SafeSea, in effect, prevents cnidocytes firing. It's important to note that SafeSea has not yet been tested in humans against man of war or the deadly Indo-Pacific box jellyfish (gung-ho volunteers here are presumably hard to come by). Even so, Auerbach suspects it should provide some (though not fool-proof) protection against almost any coelenterate since the firing mechanism it inhibits is similar in all species. I've never heard of Safesea! I believe it's pretty rare to even survive a box jellyfish sting. These attractive suits are used where the box jellies live, but I don't think they're USMS legal anymore :) http://www.stingersuits.com/

When SafeSea first came out, I wrote about jellyfish stings for National Geographic Adventure magazine, which has since gone out of business. In any event, I got to interview the Israeli marine biologist who invented the stuff. Here's an excerpt from my article: Millions of diehard beach adventurers each year feel some form of the tentacle's lash. If anything, the problem may be getting worse. According to a recent report in Science, the populations of certain jellyfish species are exploding in several areas of the world, including the Gulf of Mexico. Though most victims suffer no lasting ill-effects, a minefield of even the most mild-stinging jellyfish can make an otherwise great day at the beach seem anything but. "Most vacationers and ocean explorers are ill prepared to deal with jellyfish in general," Paul Auerbach, MD, a Stanford University expert on marine envenomation and author of the invaluable Medicine for the Outdoors (The Lyons Press, 2003). Not that the news is uniformly dire. In what Auerbach describes as the "most significant advance" he's seen in twenty years of providing clinical advice on the subject, a new product recently developed by marine biologists in Israel has been shown in clinical trials to successfully block the firing mechanism of numerous species of coelenterates. The only product of its type registered with the FDA, SafeSea combines a jellyfish sting inhibitor with sun block. "A jellyfish sting is one of the most rapid mechanical events in nature," explains SafeSea inventor, Amit Lotan, Ph.D., a marine biologist who has spent more than a decade studying the the biomechanics of a sting. "The needle penetrates into the skin of a human or other 'prey' with a force akin to that of a bullet fired from a gun." Depending on the species you happen to get shot by, symptoms can range from almost nothing at all (the moon jelly or Aurelia aurita, a common squishy fixture on Atlantic beaches, has an extremely mild sting) to moderately maddening vexation (sea bather's eruption is caused by thimble jellyfish and larval anemones, which typically leave red, itchy bumps on the skin underneath your bathing suit) to agony (the Portuguese man of war, or Physalia physalis, each year sends dozens of victims to hospitals with excruciating stings characterized by welts and blisters). Lotan, whose work on the toxin delivery pathway of jellyfish was first published in Nature, says he and his colleagues modeled SafeSea in part on naturally occurring compounds in the skin surface of clown fish, which live unharmed among stinging sea anemones, and certain snails, which eat jellyfish. SafeSea, in effect, prevents cnidocytes firing. It's important to note that SafeSea has not yet been tested in humans against man of war or the deadly Indo-Pacific box jellyfish (gung-ho volunteers here are presumably hard to come by). Even so, Auerbach suspects it should provide some (though not fool-proof) protection against almost any coelenterate since the firing mechanism it inhibits is similar in all species. I've never heard of Safesea! I believe it's pretty rare to even survive a box jellyfish sting. These attractive suits are used where the box jellies live, but I don't think they're USMS legal anymore :) http://www.stingersuits.com/