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To minimise the risk of being stung by potentially dangerous jellyfish (marine stingers), follow these simple tips from Surf Life Saving North Queensland:

1. Always swim at patrolled beaches and between the red and yellow flags.
2. Look for, and observe, warning signs.
3. Where provided, swim in stinger-resistant enclosures, wear protective clothing and do not swim when beaches are closed.

How much do you know about jellyfish?

Watch National Geographic's fantastic video "" to cover the basics about jellyfish. Firstly, jellyfish are not even fish. You might also call them sea jellies to avoid confusion.

If you would like to read more about the wonderful world of sea jellies, check out National Geographic's article on in their October 2018 edition.

is unfortunately still confusing and controversial and our team is working on finding a better solution.

Claims for jellyfish sting remedies range from ice water to pee, but if you got stung by a box jellyfish (Chironex), continued CPR and transfer to a hospital as soon as possible are the only remedies that can save your life. The easiest thing you can do is to cover your body with a stinger suit and swim within the stinger enclosures at a safe beach.

provides regular updates on closed beaches and maps showing the location of stinger enclosures.

Andreosso, A., Bansal, P. S. P. S., Smout, M. J. M. J., Daly, N. L. N. L., Wilson, D., Seymour, J. E., & Daly, N. L. N. L. (2018). Structural Characterisation of Predicted Helical Regions in the Chironex fleckeri CfTX-1 Toxin. Marine Drugs, 16(6).

Andreosso, A., Smout, M. J., & Seymour, J. E. (2014). Dose and time dependence of box jelly fish antivenom. Journal of Venomous Animals and Toxins Including Tropical Diseases, 20(1).

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Brinkman, D. L., Aziz, A., Loukas, A., Potriquet, J., Seymour, J., Mulvenna, J., & One, P. L. (2012). Venom proteome of the box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri. PloS One, 7(12), e47866.

Brinkman, D. L., Konstantakopoulos, N., McInerney, B. V., Mulvenna, J., Seymour, J. E., Isbister, G. K., & Hodgson, W. C. (2014). Chironex fleckeri (box jellyfish) venom proteins: Expansion of a cnidarian toxin family that elicits variable cytolytic and cardiovascular effects. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 289(8), 4798–4812.

Brinkman, D. L., Mulvenna, J., Konstantakopoulos, N., Hodgson, W. C., Isbister, G. K., Seymour, J. E., & Burnell, J. N. (2012). 106. Molecular Diversity of Box Jellyfish Toxins. Toxicon, 60(2), 148–149.

Carrette, T. J., & Seymour, J. E. (2013). Long-term analysis of Irukandji stings in Far North Queensland. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, 43(1), 9–15. Retrieved from

Carrette, T. J., Underwood, A. H., & Seymour, J. E. (2012). Irukandji syndrome: A widely misunderstood and poorly researched tropical marine envenoming. Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine, 42(3), 214–223. Retrieved from

Carrette, T., Straehler-Pohl, I., & Seymour, J. (2014). Early life history of Alatina cf. moseri populations from Australia and Hawaii with implications for taxonomy (Cubozoa: Carybdeida, Alatinidae). PLoS ONE, 9(1), 1–8.

Chaousis, S., Smout, M., Wilson, D., Loukas, A., Mulvenna, J., & Seymour, J. (2014). Rapid short term and gradual permanent cardiotoxic effects of vertebrate toxins from Chironex fleckeri (Australian box jellyfish) venom. Toxicon, 80, 17–26.

Colin, S. P., Costello, J. H., Katija, K., Seymour, J., & Kiefer, K. (2013). Propulsion in Cubomedusae: Mechanisms and Utility. PLoS ONE, 8(2), 1–10.

Courtney, R. (2016). Life cycle, prey capture ecology, and physiological tolerances of Medusae and polyps of the “Irukandji” jellyfish: Carukia barnesi. College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences. ÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±½á¹û. Retrieved from

Courtney, R., & Seymour, J. (2013). Seasonality in Polyps of a Tropical Cubozoan: A latina nr mordens. PLoS ONE, 8(7), 1–6.

Courtney, R., Browning, S., & Seymour, J. (2016). Early life history of the “irukandji” jellyfish carukia barnesi. PLoS ONE, 11(3), 1–13.

Courtney, R., Browning, S., Northfield, T., & Seymour, J. (2016). Thermal and osmotic tolerance of “Irukandji” Polyps: Cubozoa; Carukia barnesi. PLoS ONE, 11(7), 1–14.

Courtney, R., Sachlikidis, N., Jones, R., & Seymour, J. (2015). Prey capture ecology of the cubozoan Carukia barnesi. PLoS ONE, 10(5), 1–12.

Daly, N. L., Seymour, J., & Wilson, D. (2014). Exploring the therapeutic potential of jellyfish venom. Future Medicinal Chemistry, 6(15), 1715–1724.

Ellisdon, A. M., Reboul, C. F., Panjikar, S., Huynh, K., Oellig, C. A., Winter, K. L., … McGowan, S. (2015). Stonefish toxin defines an ancient branch of the perforin-like superfamily. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(50), 15360–15365.

Gangur, A. N., Seymour, J. E., Liddell, M. J., Wilson, D., Smout, M. J., & Northfield, T. D. (2017). When is overkill optimal? Tritrophic interactions reveal new insights into venom evolution. Theoretical Ecology, pp. 1–9.

Gangur, A. N., Smout, M., Liddell, M. J., Seymour, J. E., Wilson, D., & Northfield, T. D. (2017). Changes in predator exposure, but not in diet, induce phenotypic plasticity in scorpion venom. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 284(1863), 20171364.

Gordon, M., & Seymour, J. (2012). Growth, development and temporal variation in the onset of six Chironex fleckeri medusae seasons: A contribution to understanding jellyfish ecology. PLoS ONE, 7(2), 1–11.

Kingsford, M. J., Seymour, J. E., & O’Callaghan, M. D. (2012). Abundance patterns of cubozoans on and near the Great Barrier Reef. Hydrobiologia, 690(1), 257–268.

Kingsford, M. M. J., Pitt, K. K., Llewellyn, L. L. E., ..., O’Callaghan, M., Seymour, J., & Richardson, A. (2016). Project 3.6: Establishing a research framework for future NESP investment into better understanding of the presence of Box-Jellyfishes (Irukandji) and risks in … (Vol. Project 3.). Cairns, QLD, Australia: Australian Government. Retrieved from

Klein, S. G., Pitt, K. A., Rathjen, K. A., & Seymour, J. E. (2014). Irukandji jellyfish polyps exhibit tolerance to interacting climate change stressors. Global Change Biology, 20(1), 28–37.

Little, M., Fitzpatrick, R., & Seymour, J. (2016). Successful use of heat as first aid for tropical Australian jellyfish stings. Toxicon, 122, 142–144.

McClounan, S., & Seymour, J. (2012). Venom and cnidome ontogeny of the cubomedusae Chironex fleckeri. Toxicon, 60(8), 1335–1341.

McCullagh, N., Pereira, P., Cullen, P., Mulcahy, R., Bonin, R., Little, M., … Seymour, J. (2012). Randomised trial of magnesium in the treatment of Irukandji syndrome. EMA - Emergency Medicine Australasia, 24(5), 560–565.

McKenzie, L. J., Yaakub, S. M., Tan, R., Seymour, J., & Yoshida, R. L. (2016). Seagrass habitats of Singapore: Environmental drivers and key processes. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 2016(Part I), 60–77. Retrieved from

Miller, T. L., Barnett, S. K., Seymour, J. E., Jenkins, T. P., McNamara, M., & Adlard, R. D. (2018). Biliary Tract-Infecting Myxosporeans from Estuarine and Reef Stonefish (Scorpaeniformes: Synanceiidae) Off Eastern Australia, with Descriptions of Sphaeromyxa horrida n. sp. and Myxidium lapipiscis n. sp. (Myxosporea: Bivalvulida). Journal of Parasitology, 104(3), 254–261.

Neale, V., Smout, M. J., & Seymour, J. E. (2018). Spine-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis curtus) venom shows greater skeletal myotoxicity compared with cardiac myotoxicity. Toxicon, 143, 108–117.

Neale, V., Sotillo, J., Seymour, J. E., & Wilson, D. (2017). The venom of the spine-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis Curtus): Proteome, toxin diversity and intraspecific variation. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 18(12).

Payne, N. L., Snelling, E. P., Fitzpatrick, R., Seymour, J., Courtney, R., Barnett, A., … Semmens, J. M. (2015). A new method for resolving uncertainty of energy requirements in large water breathers: The “mega-flume” seagoing swim-tunnel respirometer. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, 6(6), 668–677.

Pereira, P., & Seymour, J. (2015). Marine injury, envenomation and poisoning. In P. Cameron, G. Jelinek, A.-M. Kelly, A. Brown, & M. Little (Eds.), Textbook of Adult Emergency Medicine (pp. 1047–1050). London, UK: Elsevier. Retrieved from

Pereira, P., & Seymour, J. E. (2013). In vitro effects on human heart and skeletal cells of the venom from two cubozoans, Chironex fleckeri and Carukia barnesi. Toxicon, 76, 310–315.

Saggiomo, S. L. A., & Seymour, J. E. (2012). Cardiotoxic effects of venom fractions from the Australian box jellyfish Chironex fleckeri on human myocardiocytes. Toxicon, 60(3), 391–395.

Saggiomo, S. L., Zelenka, C., & Seymour, J. (2017). Relationship between food and venom production in the estuarine stonefish Synanceia horrida. Toxicon, 125, 19–23.

Seymour, B., Andreosso, A., & Seymour, J. (2014). Cardiovascular Toxicity from Marine Envenomation. In M. S. Ramachandran & P. Thirumalaikolundusubramanian (Eds.), Heart and Toxins (pp. 203–223). London, UK: Elsevier.

Seymour, J. E. (2017). Are we using the correct first aid for jellyfish? Medical Journal of Australia, 206(6), 249–250.

Sladden, C., Seymour, J., & Sladden, M. (2013). Jellyfish stings. In M. Lebwohl, W. Heymann, J. Berth-Jones, & I. Coulson (Eds.), Treatment of Skin Disease: comprehensive therapeutic strategies (pp. 373–374). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier. Retrieved from

Underwood, A. H., Straehler-Pohl, I., Carrette, T. J., Sleeman, J., & Seymour, J. E. (2018). Early life history and metamorphosis in Malo maxima Gershwin, 2005 (Carukiidae, Cubozoa, Cnidaria ). Plankton & Benthos Research, 13(4), 1–11.

Underwood, A. H., Taylor, S., & Seymour, J. E. (2013). Range extension of the Cubozoan, Tripedalia binata Moore (Cnideria: Carybdeida: Carybdeidae) from far north Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature, 56(2), 607–614. Retrieved from

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