This is 16-year-old Australian teenager Sam Kanizay. On Saturday, he decided to cool off after football with a quick dip in the ocean at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton (a suburb in Melbourne). After about half an hour in the water Sam's legs felt numb and tingly, but he assumed it was from playing sport. When he emerged from the sea, however, he noticed his legs were covered in blood.
"My first instinct was that I must have stepped on a rock," Sam told The Age. "But I realized that couldn't have been it, because it was evenly distributed over my whole ankle and foot."
"I wasn't really thinking about being eaten."
Sam walked home and washed the blood from his legs but they wouldn't stop bleeding – so his father, Jarrod, drove him to hospital.
"We had the emergency room full of everybody that was working there just fascinated, they were all on Google afterwards, hypothesising as to what happened. They pretty much had 10 different hypotheses but nothing yet," Jarrod told The Age.
Jarrod said he often swam at the beach "and I haven't seen this happen before".
Sam's wounds continued to bleed throughout Sunday and he remained in hospital on Monday. Bothered by the mystery surrounding his son's wounds, Jarrod returned to the beach with some raw steak and a net. And what he found might keep you out of the ocean for a while.
"We found thousands of little mite-type creatures in our net," Jarrod told The Age. "We put them in an Esky and brought them home and looked at them intently and let them swim in white dishes with red meat.
"Interestingly, overnight they've essentially all clung to the meat and have been busy overnight eating it."
Museum Victoria marine scientist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith examined the bugs caught by Jarrod and thinks they are sea fleas. She told The Age the fleas were the most likely culprit for Sam's wounds. She added that the number of bites was unusual but that sea fleas are common both in Australia and around the world.
"They're there all the time; you could put a piece of meat in the water, anywhere in the bay, and you could find them," Dr Walker-Smith said.
"I think this is quite a rare thing. I really just think [Sam] was in the wrong place at the wrong time, probably."
Dr Walker-Smith said the fleas were no cause of alarm but that swimmers should avoid swimming near dead fish which the fleas feed on. A Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning spokesman said sea fleas were a "common and natural part of a healthy marine ecosystem" that "keep our marine waters clean by consuming dead and dying marine animals".
"DELWP advises swimmers to wear a wetsuit with boots to reduce the risk of being exposed to sea fleas and avoid swimming at night."
Members of local sports clubs were given advice to stay out of the water until the mystery was solved, and many locals said they were hesitant to return to the water even after discovering what caused Sam's injuries.
"My first instinct was that I must have stepped on a rock," Sam told The Age. "But I realized that couldn't have been it, because it was evenly distributed over my whole ankle and foot."
"I wasn't really thinking about being eaten."
Sam walked home and washed the blood from his legs but they wouldn't stop bleeding – so his father, Jarrod, drove him to hospital.
"We had the emergency room full of everybody that was working there just fascinated, they were all on Google afterwards, hypothesising as to what happened. They pretty much had 10 different hypotheses but nothing yet," Jarrod told The Age.
Jarrod said he often swam at the beach "and I haven't seen this happen before".
Sam's wounds continued to bleed throughout Sunday and he remained in hospital on Monday. Bothered by the mystery surrounding his son's wounds, Jarrod returned to the beach with some raw steak and a net. And what he found might keep you out of the ocean for a while.
"We found thousands of little mite-type creatures in our net," Jarrod told The Age. "We put them in an Esky and brought them home and looked at them intently and let them swim in white dishes with red meat.
"Interestingly, overnight they've essentially all clung to the meat and have been busy overnight eating it."
Museum Victoria marine scientist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith examined the bugs caught by Jarrod and thinks they are sea fleas. She told The Age the fleas were the most likely culprit for Sam's wounds. She added that the number of bites was unusual but that sea fleas are common both in Australia and around the world.
"They're there all the time; you could put a piece of meat in the water, anywhere in the bay, and you could find them," Dr Walker-Smith said.
"I think this is quite a rare thing. I really just think [Sam] was in the wrong place at the wrong time, probably."
Dr Walker-Smith said the fleas were no cause of alarm but that swimmers should avoid swimming near dead fish which the fleas feed on. A Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning spokesman said sea fleas were a "common and natural part of a healthy marine ecosystem" that "keep our marine waters clean by consuming dead and dying marine animals".
"DELWP advises swimmers to wear a wetsuit with boots to reduce the risk of being exposed to sea fleas and avoid swimming at night."
Members of local sports clubs were given advice to stay out of the water until the mystery was solved, and many locals said they were hesitant to return to the water even after discovering what caused Sam's injuries.
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