Coastal waters in Far North Queensland are warm, the surf is gentle. White, sandy beaches slope gently into a turquoise sea. The urge to jump in the ocean is overpowering.

But we musn’t. For several months each year, jellyfish inhabit these waters. Not just any jellyfish, but the deadly box jellyfish.

The toxin present on box jellyfish tentacles is so strong that people who manage to survive say stings feel like powerful electric shocks. More than half of those stung have died. The pain has been described as so excruciating that victims go into shock and drown. In Australia, about seventy people have died: more than from snakes, saltwater crocodiles, and sharks combined.

Photo: ePedia

Tentacle filaments are long, up to six feet long. Victims pulled from the water have stringy fragments of jelly wrapped around limbs, torsos or faces. Immediate dousing with vinegar prevents additional toxin-bearing sacs from firing. Immediate use of vinegar is so important that many beaches, even remote, unpopulated ones, have bottles available.

Attempting to remove tentacles by rubbing causes more of them to fire.

Why anyone would chance getting in the water around here is beyond me.

Some communities rig nets on sections of beach so swimmers can enjoy the water, free from fear of jellyfish stings.

Surfers, snorkelers and scuba divers can’t be restricted to net enclosures. They wear stinger suits. Amazingly, just a thin Lycra membrane is sufficient to block stings.

(The man’s red swim suit is known in Australian slang as a budgie smuggler.)

So if you arm yourself with a stinger suit and a bottle of vinegar, is it then safe to swim on North Queensland beaches? No it’s not—if your patch of beach is near an estuary.

Estuarine crocodiles can grow up to twenty feet long. People have been eaten. Better you should order a crocodile steak in a Cairns restaurant than become a crocodile meal yourself.

Photo: animalpicturesarchive.com

Then we have great white sharks and cone shells and redback spiders. In Australia, there’s an awful lot of stuff that can kill you. Australians seem to get a certain satisfaction from recounting all the dangers to visitors.

Box jellyfish lethality and the agonizing deaths they induce are more than enough to keep me on the sand. But I do so long to dive into those warm, clear waters.