Home | Ocean Watch | Books | About Susan | Search | Email Susan

Last week a fifth-grader e-mailed me asking about anemones. Since I couldn't remember much about the subject, I looked in my anemone file for information. An article there brought back some fond memories.

A few years ago, a mainland medical student stayed with us for six weeks while she studied emergency medicine. Almost immediately, Maggie began pursuing her dream of learning to scuba dive. She enrolled in a class, studied her lessons and drove around the island researching different types of gear.

Finally she was ready for her open-water certification dive. She packed her new equipment, and off she went to meet her instructor and classmates on the Waianae Coast.

Later that afternoon, she walked into the kitchen looking miserable.

"Are you OK?" I asked.

Maggie turned to show me her right calf. A red, raised hive about 6 inches in diameter covered her leg. At its center rose five or six big blisters, some intact, some draining clear fluid down her leg. The whole area was raw and painful.

"What happened?" I asked.

"I don't know. I was swimming along and my leg brushed a rock. It was so slight I barely felt it. What could have made such a bad sting?"

I had no idea. I called my husband, an emergency doctor, and told him the story. "What should we do?" I asked.

"Take a picture of it," he said.

"No, seriously."

"I am serious," he said. "I don't know what stung her either, but whatever it is, there's no cure. Get a picture."

Maggie accepted this verdict, and we all went back to work.

Months later, I was reading a journal article about a marine animal in the Red Sea that causes severe stings. The description of the injury sounded familiar: "Usually, a hive appears encircled by a red halo. ... In severe cases, blisters and skin ulcers may occur." Maggie experienced some other listed symptoms, too, such as swollen lymph glands.

I looked up the species and, to my surprise, discovered that a tiny version of the same animal is found in Hawaii. The culprit, which we believe stung our guest, is a lovely little sea anemone.

Sea anemones (an-NEM-on-ees) are relatives of jellyfish, Portuguese men-of-war and corals. Each anemone is a single animal with a soft, vaselike body topped with short tentacles, like a bouquet of fleshy flowers. Beneath the tentacles is the creature's mouth.

Anemones are meat eaters, feeding on drifting animals and sometimes fish. After stinging its prey, the anemone transfers the paralyzed creature to its mouth, where the anemone swallows it whole.

At least 20 kinds of anemones live in Hawaii. Some spend their entire lives in one place; others move around. One little crab in Hawaii carries an anemone (Triactis producta, the one that probably stung Maggie) in each claw for defense. Other anemones live on the shells of hermit crabs.

Hawaii's anemones are small and scarce compared to those in some tropical areas. For instance, in the Red Sea, Triactis producta is 3 inches tall and 1 1/2 inches wide. In Hawaii the same animal is 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch. Stings are not common here but, as we learned in Maggie's case, they can be severe.

People usually compare an anemone sting to a bee sting, but reactions vary according to the person and the species. There is still no specific treatment for anemone stings except to wash the area, then try ice packs for pain.

Maggie, by the way, passed her open-water dive test that day. And we have some great pictures of her sting.