Jellyfish invasion

I was not expecting a response to my letter (The Sunday Times, June 11), but obviously the stingers are painfully spoiling our summer fun.

Mr Mark A. Mallia (June 25) took me to task over the issue of vinegar being a derivative of wine/alcohol. The benefit of using vinegar is not the small amount of alcohol content, but the acetic acid which neutralises the nematocysts.

Mr Mallia quotes from his reputable first aid manual which advises on the use of alcohol to the injured site. He should have named the manual and when it was published. As a first-aid instructor, over the years I have accumulated some manuals too. None of them suggest the use of alcohol and one edition published in 2001 actually states that "alcohol may aggravate the injury and should not be used" (7th edition St John Ambulance, St Andrew's & British Red Cross).

Future revised editions of the same manual simply do not mention alcohol as first-aid treatment for jellyfish stings. When I was young I remember being advised during first aid courses to pour milk or spread butter on burns or to set fractures if the ambulance is delayed. These bad practices have long been eradicated and first aid is continuously being updated by expert medical professionals.

There were two points I wanted to pass on to readers of my letter. Firstly, that I had stumbled on a new first aid treatment which I tested on myself and the effects of the jellyfish sting were considerably reduced. This is by using shaving cream and either shaving with a safety razor or swiping with a credit card the injured site to remove the venomous barbs from the skin.

Secondly, jellyfish stings may be just an unpleasant painful experience, but in certain cases could also be life-threatening. My message was to make the reader aware that if the injury is to the eyes, mouth or throat, or if one sees adverse allergic reactions or is in doubt of the severity of the injury, then one should seek immediate medical assistance.

In the same issue, my learned friend Dr Mario Tabone-Vassallo, who is the champion of our heritage, Maltese identity and traditions, went into the cause of this jellyfish invasion and equates this to fish farming. I would add to this the over-fishing employing long nets or drift nets which are also inadvertently catching the predators of the jellyfish.

Jellyfish drift with the currents and seem incapable of keeping their position close to a fish farm. The invasion has hit all the Mediterranean coasts. We are much more vulnerable since we have a very large number of full-time and part-time fishermen when compared with our very small coastal area. I fully concur with Dr Tabone-Vassallo who wrote: "We might therefore be suffering, not only the well-known pollution, but also this secondary effect that is ruining our swimming and challenging our tourist industry."

Mr Paul P. Sultana's preoccupation is merited and I thank him for his kind remark. If only the solution were as easy as employing experienced fishermen to catch the jellyfish. Since most of my diving is done well out at sea, even further out than the tuna fish farms, I know for a fact that the sea out there is full of these nasty creatures and no matter how successful the fishermen are, more will simply drift in.

Besides, in the same thin nets, more species of fish will be caught, reducing what precious little is left. The solution would be a total ban on all fishing and not just a specific method of fishing. I fear that all governments lack the political will to accomplish this even though it would greatly enhance our tourist industry, e.g. Sharm el Sheik - Egypt. The alternative is very large areas of fishing-free zones.

Government should also consider importing large amounts of newborn turtles and releasing them off our sandy beaches.

Our seas are in such a piteous state that the thriving species are both terrible stingers: the jellyfish drifting in the upper and mid-water and the Whiskered Sole (Busuf) scavenging the bottom.