{"id":84342,"date":"2025-08-22T06:01:22","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/84342\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T06:01:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T06:01:22","slug":"whats-the-most-venomous-animal-in-the-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/84342\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s the most venomous animal in the ocean?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When people worry about diving into the ocean, sharks<\/a> are usually the first\u00a0animal that spring to mind, even though\u00a0there is an incredibly low risk of a negative shark encounter (there\u00a0are\u00a0just six unprovoked fatalities each year).\u00a0<\/p>\n

The most dangerous animal is\u00a0actually much\u00a0smaller: the\u00a0Australian box jellyfish (Chironex\u00a0fleckeri). Of the\u00a050\u00a0<\/a>box jellyfish<\/a>\u00a0species,\u00a0at least\u00a0eight<\/a>\u00a0can kill humans and\u00a0these are typically found in\u00a0Australia and the Indo-Pacific.<\/p>\n

The Australian box jellyfish can\u00a0kill an adult human in just five minutes \u2013 and it\u2019s not pleasant.\u00a0The toxins from a sting cause severe pain, vomiting, breathlessness and even\u00a0a feeling of pure dread.\u00a0<\/p>\n

These cube-shaped jellies don\u2019t just float through the water at the mercy of the currents like other jellyfish. They can actually swim through the water\u00a0using jet propulsion, reaching speeds of nearly\u00a0four knots<\/a>\u00a0(4.6 miles per hour).\u00a0And you might not even see them coming: their blue bodies help them blend in perfectly with the water around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They have 24 eyes but we don\u2019t fully understand how they see the world around them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Other highly venomous box jellies include the\u00a0Irukandji jellyfish<\/a>\u00a0(Malo spp.)\u00a0and\u00a0Barnes\u2019 jellyfish (Carukia\u00a0barnesi).\u00a0Compared to the large Australian box jellyfish, which can grow three-metre tentacles\u00a0and a 30cm bell,\u00a0these are much smaller.\u00a0Their\u00a0bell\u00a0grows no larger than\u00a02.5 centimetres<\/a>, although their trailing tentacles stretch behind them for a metre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re so hard to see in the water that, for many years,\u00a0experts\u00a0didn\u2019t know what was causing thefatalities.\u00a0In 1961, scientist Jack Barnes finally put the issue to bed by stinging himself, his son and a lifeguard\u00a0and proving that these tiny jellies caused Irukandji syndrome.\u00a0They experienced severe nerve pain,\u00a0muscle spasms, and\u00a0vomiting. They were all admitted to hospital\u00a0but\u00a0survived.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Many other ocean animals use venom to subdue prey or keep themselves safe from predation.\u00a0Although not all of them can take down a person,\u00a0blue ringed octopus<\/a>es,\u00a0geography cone snails, stonefish (one of the world’s deadliest fish<\/a>),\u00a0sea snakes<\/a>,\u00a0and\u00a0Portuguese men\u00a0of\u00a0war<\/a>\u00a0are capable of killing humans with their venom.\u00a0Meanwhile,\u00a0poisonous (not venomous)\u00a0pufferfish<\/a>\u00a0can kill you but only if you eat one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you think you have been stung by a harmful marine creature, call for help and get to a hospital immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When people worry about diving into the ocean, sharks are usually the first\u00a0animal that spring to mind, even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1397,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-84342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}