French Exchange and Weever Fish
A Day of 2 Chloes.
The picture is a Weever fish. In England it tends to be found at low’ish tide in the summer, when the sea is coming back in over warm sand and the fish enjoys the temporary “Mediterranean micro-climate”. There is an interesting article by David Derbyshire in the Mail Online.
Yesterday my French exchange, Chloe, left England to travel back home to France. She spent the week living with me and my family in the evenings and at the weekend. During the week she looked round our part of England with the other French students.
The places they visited included Cambridge, Lincoln and Nottingham where they viewed historical monuments and went shopping. Although I am sad that she left I am excited as I am going out to visit her in about a month with my school. While I am on the exchange out in Angers in the Loire Valley, I will be visiting historical monuments etc., as she did when she was here.
The day before yesterday (Saturday) was the last day before the exchange students left. My family, my friend’s family, my exchange, my friend’s exchange and I went to Skegness for the day. This is a highlight if you live in Lincolnshire!
It was great fun, we went on loads of theme park style rides while our parents were relaxing on the beach – hunkered down behind windbreaks against the cold easterly wind! Skegness has a motto “Skegness is SO Bracing” and now I know why!
At Lunch we were all paddling in the water when my younger sister, also Chloe, got stung on the foot by a weever fish! Eventually my Dad found someone who knew how to relieve the pain. My sister had to place her foot in water as hot as she could bare, this seemed to counteract the poison injected into her foot and she got better almost immediately after about 40 minutes of agony, while we did all the wrong things like putting ice on the wound. During this time she was heard to say “I’m going to die Mummy aren’t I”.
I looked up Weever fish on the Internet when I got home and I found loads of articles. Two are quoted below:
“The nerve poison injected into victims brings excruciating pain lasting several hours, often causes people’s limbs to swell and in extreme cases can lead to temporary paralysis. Irritation can last for two weeks. Death is extremely rare following stings, although respiratory failure and gangrene have been reported after puncture wounds have become infected.”
Wow that sounds pretty grim!
“The venom is a type of protein and is heat labile. This means that the only treatment is to put the effected limb in water as hot as the victim can stand without causing scalding. (In tests, the protein denatured above 40°C.) This is meant to bring about rapid and permanent relief.”
My sister can vouch for the agony of the sting and also that the heat treatment works really well. And an icepack is definitely the wrong thing! There were no long lasting affects and she was back making sand castles soon afterwards. She didn’t go paddling again though!
