Deadly Starfish

When I first spotted this two foot across starfish I thought I'd found the Holy Grail of starfish. After I Googled it I learned different.

This is a Crown of Thorns Starfish, it eats coral reefs and most divers kill them when they're discovered. As the starfish eats it realeases a scent into the water that attracts more starfish. I rarley pick anything up in the ocean but this intrigued me.

First I touched it with my camera, it was soft and moved easily across the coral. Wearing dive gloves I gently picked it up, turned it over to take a picture of the underbelly and examine it closer. Boy it moved fast. It balled up, turned hard and stuck me in three finger of my left hand. I intented to gently set it down until the burning pain set in. I dropped that little sucker with a by your leave hand gesture.

OMG, the burning got intense and started moving up my are. I new I needed help and headed for the surface where Lori was floating. Within three minutes my whole arm was burning and my finger were bleeding through my glove. I told Lori to let me know if I went into respirtory arrest or my face fell off.

Over the next two hours my arm felt better but my fingers turned dark blue and swellen up. Today they're just sore with little slivers of the thorns trying to work out. I sure learned my lesson...NEVER, NEVER, NEVER touch one of those critters again, at least not until I get a dive knife...then I'll kill the creeps.


Lori and I feed the fish Vienna Sausages, she looks like the Pied Piper. Yep, that's me with my new best friends.

Lori and a gift from me....before I got attacked.