The strange hitchhiker who disturbs the swimmers on the beaches of Haifa • Burns in the water

(lives here on the beaches) - After a long period in which we were afraid to leave the house due to the war and experienced a kind of "missile blockade", many of the sea lovers rushed to return to the magical nature and dive into the cool sea water again. But along with the enjoyment of Haifa's beaches, the less pleasant parts brought with them by the weather changes, which, as we know, affect the flora and fauna, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, have also returned.

Painful but less

In recent days, I have received many reports about a disturbing phenomenon. Swimming groups, individual swimmers and even daring divers who still dive with a Bermuda suit, tell of painful burns they felt on their skin while in the water. How painful? It is probably individual and varies from person to person.

even in the tongue

The source of these burns is a sea creature belonging to the scorban system. The production was not given a Hebrew name, and in the dialect it is called Rhizophysa filiformis.

The encounter with the aforementioned creature is unpleasant, to say the least. Its bite is painful, and the feeling of how many of its arms wrap around you is definitely not a pleasant thing. Among the swimmers' reports are also injuries to the lips and even the tongue, hands, face... for sure - it's good that there are swimming goggles.

The odd hitchhiker

One of the female swimmers even said that she noticed that as she got closer to the area where there were many pieces of plastic, the burns got worse and worse. Well, she was right. This strange animal clings to plastic particles and pieces of nylon and even to pumice stones, floating slag from volcanoes. They "catch a ride" on them as their hunting arms splash in the water. Unfortunately, we are the victims.

Although the sting of the production is not as terrible as that of the jellyfish, it is certainly not pleasant, mainly due to the way its venom is injected. The treatment on the spot, by the way, is like a jellyfish sting.

So what next?

Unfortunately, I am not a good person, the situation will continue like this, apparently, until the next storm. The only solution I can offer, also only partial - a garment with long sleeves, since most of the complainants reported injuries to their upper limbs.

So for those of you who are planning to spend time at the sea on the weekend - if you feel something strange when you are in the water, you will already know what it is. In any case, you will surely agree with me that on days like this, we can easily wish for ourselves that these would be all the troubles...