Swimmers warned over southerly spread of irukandji jellyfish

Swimmers are being urged to take extra care in waters off Queensland amid warnings the deadly irukandji jellyfish is moving further south.

Four people have been taken to hospital since Wednesday after suffering suspected irukandji stings off Queensland’s Fraser coast.

The irukandji – the world’s smallest and most venomous box jellyfish – is usually found in waters north of Mackay, about 700 kilometres north of Hervey Bay.

However, James Cook University Associate Professor Jamie Seymour said it was clear the species was following warming sea temperatures south.

Associate Professor Seymour told the ABC "we’ve got good data now that shows quite nicely that irukandji has been spreading down the east coast of Australia, moving slowly but surely southwards.

“It’s only a matter of time before they get to the southern end of Fraser Island down to the (Sunshine) Coast.”

Queensland Ambulance supervisor Martin Kelly said at least one of the cases off the Fraser coast had been positively identified as an irukandji sting.

He said while it was enticing to swim in areas off the Queensland coast, it could also be quite dangerous.

Kelly explained "people can wear stinger suits but ... where you have a choice of not swimming in an environment where they (stingers) are you should do that or stay in the very shallow water

“Prevention is far, far better than a cure.”

Irukandji jellyfish are typically difficult to see as they are only roughly a cubic centimetre in size.

While little is known about them, their potentially deadly stings can cause very high blood pressure or affect the heart. They can also cause severe muscular pain, anxious behaviour, headaches and vomiting.

Commenting on the lack of knowledge, Associate Professor Seymour told The Huffington Post Australia “to say that we have gaps in our knowledge is an understatement.

"We think there are at least eight species of jellyfish that give rise to the irukandji syndrome and we know the venom from each of them is different.

"When someone arrives at hospital with irujandki syndrome, we're reactive, we don't know what's going to happen to them.

"For some, they have a lot of pain, so they try to fix that, if their heart fails, they try to fix that, if they get pulmonary adema, or their blood pressure goes through the roof, they try to fix that, but they don't really know what's going to happen each time."

The death of two French tourists, while snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns in November, has also been attributed to irukandji stings. However, tourism operators have been keen to play down this potential over fears that it would damage the Queensland tourism industry.

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