In this very late edition of OH SNAP! With Matt! we have a column that should be getting a title like; “Holy Wow Awesomeness, and other Adventures with Multiple Arms.” Multiple arms eh? Well this is suppose to be a column about the aquatic life around Planet earth, so I’ll bet we’re talking about some sort of Cephalopod, right? Very right. Up for discussion today is one of my favourites of the ocean dwelling world; The Octopus.
There are quite a few species of octopus out there, 289 is the number I keep finding. So what could the venomous animal connection be? Easy; every single octopus on Earth is venomous! From the largest of the species; the Giant Pacific Octopus, to the smallest; the Octopus Wolfi. Every single one of them has some form of venom it uses for catching prey and defending itself in the rare times it’s camouflage and sneaky nature has it found by predators.
This should lead to a good question; how exactly does an octopus envenomate it’s prey? We’re all familiar with those 8 arms, or at least I hope we are……..if not……get out more and explore more. In the middle of all those 8 arms is the mouth of the octopus. This is where most species of octopus have the only hard part of their body; the beak. It is, as you’d expect from the name, shaped quite a bit like a parrots beak in appearance. On this beak will be the tips which inject the venom, usually these tips are about the size of a pin. The puncture wound delivered is frequently described as pin sized.
So lets talk about the effects of the venom of one of these species, and you know me; I like to go for the knock out punch. The deadliest and most venomous of the Octopus is the Blue Ring Octopus. So named for the bright blue rings all over it’s body which it ‘lights up’ when it’s threatened. This little fella grows to be about the size of a golf ball and could kill 26 grown humans (20 if one of them is this lady) with the venom contained in it’s body at any given time. This is in fact one of the most venomous species of ANYTHING at all ANYWHERE in the World. And you could probably hold half a dozen of them in your hand (Not Recommended).
The effect of it’s venom is a paralysing agent known as tetrodoxin. It blocks phosphates and makes it so you can’t move, and of course breath. You basically die unable to let anyone know what the problem is, unable to do anything about it, and suffocating with nothing over your mouth, fully conscious. I’d call that slightly unpleasant.
So lets say you and your best mate Jeb have decided to go out diving off the coast of beautiful Australia in the area of New South
Wales this time, this is a favourite habitat of our little ringed octopus pal. And you see Jeb point at a lil beauty of an octopus which you recognize as the deadly Blue Ring. Jeb though, Jeb’s better with land animals that he can shoot with a rifle. He goes up to it, handles it before you can get to him and smack him up side the head (you can’t yell at him not to……you’re underwater), and is bitten. What can you do for ole Jeb so that you may once again hang out with koala bears?
The only treatment for a blue ring octopus bite is rescue breathing or any kind of artificial respiration. That’s it, no antivenin, no mash up of vegetables, no real option besides keep oxygen going into the body artificially. That and hoping the body is able to metabolize and excrete the venom. Most people who make it through the first 24 hours make a complete recovery, the hard part is surviving the paralysis as that is what it uses to subdue it’s prey.
Luckily for Jeb, he’s got a good friend in you who has rescue breathing experience, and a handy dandy cell phone for calling Emergency Services. With a little luck you’re back to wrestling crocodiles and throwing boomerangs in no time!
Hoping an annoyed Aussie doesn’t cause a blue ring to appear around his eye,
Matt Yeoman
PHOTO SOURCES @ peterbe, adamaqua, australia-trips.info, tonychor, exxxplorer.files.wordpress, Everything Octopus, flickr
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