Heartless, no brain killers in Queensland waters
What has no heart, bones, eyes or brain, is made up of 95% water, and yet is still a remarkably efficient and deadly ocean predator?
If you thought of the box jellyfish you would be right. However, to put this in perspective, there are many creatures that kill more people.
Official records show the box jellyfish has caused 63 deaths since 1884, in waters surrounding Queensland and extending further North.
Deaths by this jellyfish have also been reported from Philippines, Maldives, Japan, Papua New Guinea, South India, Java, Malaysia, and Gulf of Thailand. The Labuan District Hospital in Malaysia recorded two to three deaths every year since 1991.
In the Philippines the multi-tentacled box jellyfish is estimated to cause 20 to 40 deaths every year.
The much smaller Irukandji is the focus of research and investigation with the Whitsunday Marine Stinger management committee working to coordinate research to understand this potentially deadly creature.
But what animal really kills?
According to the National Geographic Channel documentary 'Elephant Rage', some 500 people are killed by elephant attacks each year.
According to the Department of Elephant Research investigating the increase in DBE (death by elephant) cases elephants kill people by sitting on and smothering them, by strangling them with their trunks or by trampling.
Jellyfish, Crocs and sharks hardly rate in the death stakes against the mosquito responsible for the deaths of more than two million people per year due to malaria.
Locally, with the early rain and runoff, there is an increased chance of box jellyfish in local waters. Take precautions and be safe.
Flying a kite
A new approach to harnessing tidal energy is ready for testing with underwater kite power generators tethered to the ocean floor near Ireland.
'Deep Green' tidal kites will be anchored underwater and, using kinetic energy and automatic rudders will fly in figure eights with the oceanic tides. Because water is eight hundred times as dense as air, these kites technically could produce nearly eight hundred times the energy as wind turbines.
Eventually, the silent tidal kite farms could significantly increase green energy across the world if the test is successful.
Beer, girl, coconuts, boat
Three teenage boys, who had attempted to row the sixty miles between two small Tokelau Pacific islands, became lost and drifted for fifty days across nearly 700 nautical miles (1300Kms) of the Pacific in a tinny.
A more complete story is now coming out how the three boys, two aged 15 and one 14, found themselves in this predicament.
It all started with a girl.
In October, a sporting event was held on Atafu, the Tokelauan atoll that is the boys' home. One of the attendees was a girl from a neighbouring atoll, Fakaofo. At least one of the boys was smitten by the young lady.
When she left their island, the three boys decided to go visit her. Reportedly, alcohol may have played a part in the decision. Around midnight on the day of her departure, they stole a skiff and brought along a bag of coconuts, some beer and a fuel tank.
The fuel ran out, so they decided to row to the neighbouring atoll, some sixty miles away.
Instead, they got lost and drifted for fifty days before they were picked up by a passing tuna fishing boat.
Remarkably, all three boys are in relatively good health – a bit sunburned, thin and thirsty, but generally OK.
Mackay Harbour
Mariners are advised that the lighted port lateral mark No. 2 beacon Q R, which marks the entrance into Mackay harbour is temporarily unlit. AUS chart 250
Fair winds to Ye!
Cap'n Dan
