Box jellyfish: feared and deadly stingers of the seas

In this video, we zoom in on the box jellyfish, an invertebrate that developed the capacity to instantly stun or kill prey, like fish and shrimp, so that their struggle to escape wouldn’t damage its delicate tentacles.

Box jellies, also called sea wasps and marine stingers, live primarily in coastal waters off Northern Australia and throughout the Indo-Pacific. They are pale blue and transparent in colour, getting their name from the cube-like shape of their bell.

Their venom is so overpoweringly painful, human victims have been known to go into shock and drown or die of heart failure before even reaching shore. Survivors can experience considerable pain for weeks and often have significant scarring where the tentacles made contact.

Their numbers are projected to rise significantly due to global warming.

Read more about the box jellyfish here.

View the original video here.

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