Sunday, October 21, 2001

50 Creepy crawlies of the sea

Coastal Bend waters, with their range of recreational opportunities, pose just enough risk to make life more interesting. They teem with sharks, stingrays and jellyfish, and yet the chance of feeling a shark's teeth are practically nil, while the ray and jellyfish stings usually are little more than a discomfort.
   Small price for a big sense of adventure each time you venture into the water.
   "This is all part of the natural system," said Quenton Dokken, associate director of the Center for Coastal Studies at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. "If we don't have a diversity of organisms, from bacteria all the way up to tiger sharks and bull sharks, then we would not have the ecosystems we experience and enjoy."
   The scary part: Practically any kind of shark in local waters conceivably could bite a human being. Likely suspects include bull, tiger and lemon sharks. Others possible biters include the black tip, mako, silky, dusky and hammerhead.
   The reassuring part: Only 10 shark attacks have been recorded off the entire Texas coast since 1990, none fatal. Texas sharks generally are not interested in people because fish is their usual food. Most bites are believed to be the result of mistaken identity.
   The ouchy part: The Portuguese man-of-war delivers a painful sting when one brushes against its tentacles.
   Small consolation: The man-of-war's stings rarely cause serious injury except to those highly allergic to the jellyfish toxin.
   Watch your step: Stingrays, which sometimes lurk on sandy beach bottoms, don't attack people. But they will sting, by whipping their barb-equipped tail, if someone steps on them. The sting hurts a lot, but it is easily treated with hot water and possibly a tetanus shot and antibiotic.
  
  

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