Big Box Jellyfish Blog Southeast Asia

  UPDATED 16 SEPTEMBER 2026 A hearing is currently taking place in the Philippines' halls of power about bringing into law the Child Tourist Safety Act, or Sandy's Act, that's designed to protect children in tourism areas from the likes of box jellyfish. This is landmark stuff! Led by Senator Risa Hontiveros, Chairperson of the Committee On Women, Children, Family Relations & Gender Equality, the bill includes a range of issues impacting children in tourism areas from abuse to a lack of medical aid in emergencies such as a potentially deadly jellyfish sting. These emergencies as too often detailed here, happen far too frequently. One such tragedy involved six-year-old Sandy Garovillas, who died from a jellyfish sting at a Palawan resort on 30 October, 2023. Every year, it is estimated that between 20 and 40 children die from a box jellyfish sting in the Philippines. It's most likely more. This is a disturbing number. Philippines Jellyfish & Child Deaths Not one ...

  The Philippines has taken a much-needed step toward saving lives with the recent release of a  jellyfish safety video   by the Philippine Society of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (PSAAI).  While this might seem insignificant, it's actually a very  positive  move forward after decades of inaction and recent public and political outcry that erupted over the preventable deaths of innocent children. As posted HERE in September 2024 about the tragic death of five-year-old Kiera and consequent public anguish expressed by her devastated mother  Jahaziel Michaellie Maningdin; the people have pleaded, the government has listened, and this  PSAAI  video goes some way in raising awareness and honouring the memory and legacy of not only Kiera, but numerous other children whose young lives were ended by a box jellyfish sting. Sadly and poignantly, as the video was released and this post was being written, two 10-year-old children tragically died fro...

  Jahaziel Michaellie Maningdin is devastated and angry after the death of her daughter, five-year-old Kiera, who was fatally stung by a box jellyfish at a Philippines resort.  A relaxing mother and child swim turned into a nightmare at All Hands Beach in Subic Bay when on a calm and sunny late-June morning this year, Keira suddenly screamed, collapsed and within a few agonising minutes was dead.  She had stepped into the sticky tentacles of a lethal and endemic box jellyfish and was quickly, painfully killed by its lightning-fast acting and extremely potent venom. This happened at a resort. A revenue-making resort attracting paying tourists that offers no information, no warning signs, no related first-aid protocols, no rapid-response procedures, no anything.  Yet, aware of the risk and that box jellyfish are endemic to the area, they meanwhile promote their resort as “… great for swimming for all ages due to the gradually sloping depth of t...

Most have at some stage or another had to try through gritted teeth answering the one question we do not want to or cannot: how bad is the pain? From a stubbed toe to a migraine, the intensity impacted by the patient's pain threshold obviously varies. Many know that jellyfish stings are usually bad but box jellyfish stings, no matter who you are, are so bad they almost defy description. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is mild and 10 is unimaginable and unspeakable, box jellyfish stings as so eloquently put by lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel when explaining his amp in the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap, "... go to eleven." American professor Brian Fry from the University of Queensland, Australia is a venom expert and when rating that country's Top 10 most painful stings he placed two cubozoa or box jellyfish species at the top.  Coming in second was the Chironex and at number one was the Irukandji . Chironex is a Chirodropida or multi-tentacle box jellyfish and Irukandji ...

  Right now, there are a lot of very good people working to make everyone box jellyfish-safe and sting-free in South-East Asian seas. Their number are small but they're a dedicated bunch committing themselves to surveilling, testing, researching, communicating, training, educating, treating and advancing the cause of effective box jellyfish prevention and sting treatment. Through interconnected active networks from the beach to the bureaucrats, change is taking place with  knowledge, strategies and actions progressively making a positive difference. Their message to the public is simple: Swim inside a prevention net if one's available. Wear a full-length lycra stinger suit if outside a net. Immediately and only use vinegar on a sting. And then there is peeing. Urinating on some poor victim's jellyfish sting is widely, and wrongly, considered an accepted treatment. It's not, okay? And what's worse, if that's possible, whenever there's mention of a jellyfish ...

  Tragically, it can happen anywhere there is a known, or unknown, habitat and presence of box jellyfish. It can be a beautiful, calm, tropical sandy beach. There can be many people, a few or none. Someone might even be wearing a protective lycra suit, though this is unlikely. Sometimes there are warning signs, often not. Perhaps there is a prevention net, usually there isn't. Or, there might be a lifeguard or two patrolling the beach and occasionally dragging a sampling net.  There may recently have been a mild or serious jellyfish sting there, or far worse, a fatal sting, but there is no obvious record or information.  You, eager to swim, wanting to cool down in the immersive sea in such a spectacular setting, naturally head unaware into the water. Little do you realise, or maybe you do but what are the odds, that the risk is ever-present and this swim could be your last. On the weekend, at a popular beach in Australia's far north-east, it happened, again...

  "Scientists have now also discovered that other species of jellyfish, most notably other cubozoans or box jellyfish (of which Irukandji is one of the smallest) also give rise to this syndrome. There are at least 8–12 other species of Irukandji jellyfish found in Australian waters. Most have been documented in the warmer waters of the east coast. Research has revealed that they also like to extend their tentacles and have caused injury in other parts of the world. Unfortunately there are no definitive tests that can confirm if patients are the victims of Irukandji stings. Treatment of the cryptic syndrome is also complex due to the varying symptoms, so it’s easy to misdiagnose." - Australian Geographic  If you've ever inexplicably felt like hell some time after emerging from the sea in South-East Asia and more than likely went to hospital where you could not get any relief from medication, comfort from loved ones and an explanation from doctors, a box jellyfish sting and...

Box jellyfish are widespread throughout the Indo-Pacific region and, while this blog is primarily focused on South-East Asia, tragic news of a fatality in a far north-east corner of tropical Australia resonates with relevancy throughout thousands of similar coastal communities. A young man of 17 has sadly lost his life, stung by a box jellyfish while net fishing with family at a faraway beach on the York Peninsula.  Box jellyfish are active right across the northern stretch of Australia during the wet season from October to May and stings from Chironex fleckerii and Irukandji occur though deaths are uncommon. Australia has developed a reasonably sophisticated and successful system of prevention and treatment education and tools so as to avoid tragic deaths such as that which occurred at Bamaga in Queensland this week. But, it's far from perfect. In fact, its effectiveness through concerted effort over a number of years is limited to specific places and areas, us...

A precious child is once again the focus of a life-threatening box jellyfish sting, another in a familiar pattern that stretches across South-East Asia. A tragic postcript to the following story, is news of further deaths: A 5-year old girl ( 17th May, 2021)  and a 7-year old girl (8th June, 2021), both killed by the venom from box jellyfish stings at different beaches in Camarines Sur province, south-east of Luzon. On the Philippines island of Negros, a family was day-tripping at beautiful Nabulao Beach when disaster struck. In the afternoon of 8 February, 2021, two young children were playing in the shallows with their father when one child let out a distressing cry. The girl had been stung by a box jellyfish. What followed was a deeply harrowing experience for the family as they desperately tried to keep their child alive.  The potentially lethal venom had taken hold and the little girl had fallen unconscious. On the way to the local hospital, her mother...

Travel and tourism are in lockdown and the world's wanderlust is peaking. Novel coronavirus restrictions have severely wounded the industry, mortally in some cases,  but when the recovery (of sorts) comes, those that want and can will getaway quick. 

And off to the children's playground we go. Not one with monkey bars, swing, slide nor merry-go-round. This time, let's join heroic vlogger-adventurer Finn Snow in the Philippines as he does something stupid and risky while telling others how to be stupid and risky so he can be popular, and make money or save money with free tours. The title of his video is  'How To Juggle BOX JELLYFISH (Blindfolded)'. Sorry, that should be,  'How To Safely Hold BOX JELLYFISH (Coron Palawan)'. Keep in mind that box jellyfish are widely known as the world's most venomous animal. Dozens of innocent victims are killed by them every year in the Philippines, mainly children.  The title is dumb, the content is dumber and the advice is the dumbest.   Unless you want to indulge in the endless narcissism of the flawless Finn Snow and his model side-kick who vainly attempt to eclipse a stunning Philippines' backdrop, fast-forward his Youtube video to around 6:50 minutes...