The relevant Langkawi's authorities had finally decided to take action with the escalation of victims stung by jellyfishes lately.
LADA (Langkawi Development Authority) collaborated with the Hospital Langkawi, fishermen, beach hotels and of course, our beloved Malaysian Nature Society Langkawi to hold talks and "cleaning up" operations.
Hospital Langkawi conducted two talks on how to manage and treat jellyfish attacks to the public recently. Due to lack of publicity, the response to the first talk was appalling. The second talk this week had received a better response with fifty over people. During the talk, they revealed a shocking statistic on the number of victims within the month of July 2010.
Their statistic stated from 1st July to the third week of July, a total of 185 cases of jellyfish stung reported, 12 people admitted, an average of 10-20 cases per day and no death reported. The affected area was mainly in Pantai Cenang.
The speaker was a medical assistant and he presented the following:
1) The mechanism of nematocysts
2) Recognising the signs and symptoms of a jellyfish sting
3) Dos and don'ts when administering first aid the victim. This is a very important reminder: NEVER EVER POUR TAP OR MINERAL WATER ON THE STING. This will trigger the stinging capsules and will make the condition worse.
4) Treatment and management
Unfortunately, no one in the room could provide the exact facts on the jellyfish species and the dangerous ones that can be found in the waters of Langkawi. However, they were quick to rule out the existence of Box Jellyfish and the Portuguese-man-of-war in the waters of Langkawi. We were told that the Fisheries Department could not even provide the details on the number of species. Seems like there is lack of research done on jellyfishes in Langkawi. Or perhaps the facts are classified information?
Well, whatever the reasons, this Sunday 25th July 2010 will be a great opportunity to find out what sort of species out there in the water. This Sunday's event is the second operation to "clean up" the jellyfishes in the sea. The first one was held on July 17th as a trial run.
This event of scooping up any jellyfishes spotted in the sea will involve fishing boats, the public, relevant government agencies, LADA and MNS Langkawi.
Time: 10am-4pm
Location: Kuala Cenang
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Interesting report, WChinner. Can you actually clear the sea of jellyfish by just scooping them out in a day ?
ReplyDeleteHi Monyet King;
ReplyDeleteThat's why i phased these two words clean up as "clean up".
There is NO WAY the sea can be cleaned up in a day. Two important goals can be achieved here:
1) Opportunity to scoop up any species that are deem to be dangerous and for research purpose.
2) Tourists know that the authorities are making efforts to do something about it.
However, sadly, no signboard on cenang beach to warn swimmers/public to be vigilant on jellyfishes. I yet to see any signboard so far.