I got nailed by one of these innocent looking things while snorkling off Manly Point today.

It stung me across my back and hand by the time I had noticed the tentacle and swum out of the way.

The Portuguese Man o’ War or Blue Bottle is named for its air bladder, which looks similar to the triangular sails of the Portuguese ship (man-of-war: two or three masted lateen-rigged ship caravel), of the 15th and 16th centuries.

It is found in open ocean in all of the world’s warm water seas but most commonly in the tropical and subtropical regions of the Pacific and Indian oceans. The tentacles have been known to reach 50 metres long although 10 metres is the average.

I’ve been stung by these a few times before, including in Brazil in 2006, and from diving had always been taught that urine was the best ways to deal with the sting (resulting in a slightly awkward moment on that occasion while my brother went off to do the honours in to a bottle for me to pour over the stung area…)

Ice is also considered a good treatment as it numbs the area but crucially does not actually stop the toxins effectiveness much.

So I was doing some research and found out that only in the last couple of years the consensus has changed completely:

The recommendation now is to use the hottest water possible on the affected area to render the toxins inactive.

Wish I had known that this afternoon…

Beautiful creatures, bitch of a sting…