
An attack of carnivorous Sea Fleas at a Melbourne beach - chadcmulligan
http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/flesheating-bugs-at-brighton-beach-what-really-ate-sam-and-why-20170807-gxqsab.html
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cyberferret
Well, that makes a bit more sense - I thought it was odd that they said it was
sea slugs, because they generally don't eat any flesh unless it is dead
already. Sea lice look like they are not so fussy if you are still kicking
around.

Listening to a friend of mine who works in the Sea Police here in the North of
Australia - it sounds like if you ever needed to bump off anyone with little
chance of getting caught, then throwing them off your boat in the Arafura Sea
should do the trick.

Usually when people drown, their bodies tend to bloat and they tend to float
until found by search parties, but in this particular sea, the sea slugs will
usually bore holes in a dead body so that the gases escape, and the body sinks
to the ocean bed. They almost never find anyone who has gone overboard
accidentally or intentionally in these waters, according to him.

~~~
lobster_johnson
The first reports talked about "sea lice", which are quite different.

The sea louse (or one type of it) is a parasite that famously eats the tongues
of fish and "replace" the tongue by lodging themselves in the mouth of the
fish. [1]

They also had an "expert" speculating about jellyfish larvae, which are
colloquially (but incorrectly) also called sea lice, but they are not capable
of biting, only stinging.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cymothoa_exigua)

~~~
robin_reala
Huh, I’ve always known a sealouse to be the aquatic equivalent to a woodlouse:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligia_oceanica](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ligia_oceanica)
. Looks like I was wrong, or at least I learned a local name.

~~~
frenchy
There's also the crustaceans known as sea lice:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_louse)

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bitL
Australia? Who could have thought...

Reminds me of that joke website (is it poisonous?). The first question was
"Are you in Australia?" and if you confirmed you are, the answer was automatic
"YES"...

~~~
thomasfoster96
> Reminds me of that joke website (is it poisonous?). The first question was
> "Are you in Australia?" and if you confirmed you are, the answer was
> automatic "YES"...

I think Australia must be unique in having at least one venomous/poisonous
species of fish, amphibian, reptile and mammal.

~~~
wavefunction
Maybe you mean venomous in a way that threatens a human.

That's true of every continent.

~~~
gozur88
Are there venomous mammals in North America? I can't think of one.

~~~
andrewl
Apparently the northern short-tailed shrew, native to North America, has
venom:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_short-
tailed_shrew](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_short-tailed_shrew)

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pwython
> and said the creatures were sea fleas, not sea lice as first thought.

Not sure what authority suggested sea lice first. Growing up in South Florida,
I can say sea lice are much more annoying than these blood sucking fleas he
ran into. The former are basically mosquitos of the ocean. Hours after
swimming, you're itching for days from tiny bug bites. At any rate, sounds
like the kid has some sort of hemophilia that made matters worse and created a
viral scare. He got off easy.

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meerita
Both feets were harmed when he went to the water to attract so many slugs?
Doesn't sounds quite right.

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chadcmulligan
A follow up to my earlier post
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14944815](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14944815),
not sure if this is the correct etiquette

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juhq
What the hell australia

