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Teen Stung By Lion’s Mane Jellyfish Off Louth Beach

5th July 2018
Teen Stung By Lion’s Mane Jellyfish Off Louth Beach Credit: The Big Jellyfish Hunt/Facebook

#Jellyfish - Ireland’s recent invasion of lion’s mane jellyfish has extended from Galway Bay to the East Coast, where a teenager was hospitalised after a nasty sting in recent days.

Herald.ie reports that 14-year-old Jack Dunne was stung over most of his body after getting entangled in the tentacles of a lion’s mane while swimming with friends off Port Beach, near Togher in Co Louth.

The teen needed “strong antihistamines and anti-inflammatory tablets” to recover from the intense pain of the jellyfish stings, which have the potential to cause death from anaphylactic shock.

Irish Water Safety chief John Leech warned that the dangerous marine species is not normally seen in the Irish Sea till autumn — and may be increased in number due to an absence of their natural predators, sunfish and turtles. Herald.ie has more on the story HERE.

Lion’s mane jellyfish currently being encountered in Irish waters are also larger than usual, according to one animal expert.

Published in Coastal Notes
MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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Coastal Notes Coastal Notes covers a broad spectrum of stories, events and developments in which some can be quirky and local in nature, while other stories are of national importance and are on-going, but whatever they are about, they need to be told.

Stories can be diverse and they can be influential, albeit some are more subtle than others in nature, while other events can be immediately felt. No more so felt, is firstly to those living along the coastal rim and rural isolated communities. Here the impact poses is increased to those directly linked with the sea, where daily lives are made from earning an income ashore and within coastal waters.

The topics in Coastal Notes can also be about the rare finding of sea-life creatures, a historic shipwreck lost to the passage of time and which has yet many a secret to tell. A trawler's net caught hauling more than fish but cannon balls dating to the Napoleonic era.

Also focusing the attention of Coastal Notes, are the maritime museums which are of national importance to maintaining access and knowledge of historical exhibits for future generations.

Equally to keep an eye on the present day, with activities of existing and planned projects in the pipeline from the wind and wave renewables sector and those of the energy exploration industry.

In addition Coastal Notes has many more angles to cover, be it the weekend boat leisure user taking a sedate cruise off a long straight beach on the coast beach and making a friend with a feathered companion along the way.

In complete contrast is to those who harvest the sea, using small boats based in harbours where infrastructure and safety poses an issue, before they set off to ply their trade at the foot of our highest sea cliffs along the rugged wild western seaboard.

It's all there, as Coastal Notes tells the stories that are arguably as varied to the environment from which they came from and indeed which shape people's interaction with the surrounding environment that is the natural world and our relationship with the sea.