Originally published at: High amounts of flesh-eating bacteria found in Florida's washed-up seaweed | Boing Boing
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this is highly concerning to us here and for now, we are not doing any snorkeling from shore. we are assuming that offshore - so long as not directly moored or anchored in a large sargassum raft - we would be ok.
i am always cut or scratched from gardening/landscaping our property by sharp bromeliads, pineapples or other poinky things like the sharp coral rock that is everywhere. can’t go letting cut-up legs get infections like vibrio by wading into the water through the reeking seaweed.
and this is as bad as i have ever seen it.
eewww!
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The list of reasons to not go in the water gets longer every year, huh?
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Vibrio contaminated sargassum is Ron Desantis’ spirit animal, coming ashore to support him in his hour of need. Expect an epic battle with Trump’s spirit animal, a toupeed banana slug, any time now.
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sadly, yes.
it is also not what it used to be. the reef that makes up the florida keys is 90% dead and covered in ugly brown algae. the colorful fish have died off as a result of the coral reduction and by predation of invasive lionfish.
what used to be a wondrous escape into a beautiful world underwater is tinged with sadness for what has been lost.
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Are we sure that it’s his spirit animal and not that he’s 3 trillion vibrio in a trench coat?
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That’s really sad, I didn’t know it was that bad. Sorry, buddy.
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Could be. It’s hard to imagine a spirit animal, even a semi-sentient plaque of kelp, bacteria and toxic waste, attaching itself to a lump of suet like Desantis. I mean, I’m pretty sure having a spirit is a prerequisite for a spirit animal.
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Does it help if it’s not actually an animal either, though?
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Hard to say. They loosened the rules back in that first wave of mystical deregulation in the early ‘80’s; I’m not sure anyone really knows what’s going to be approved by the board anymore.
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You will tremble in terror at the sight of Hershell Gordon Lewis’s “Plastic Flesh-eating Seaweed Beach Party Bongo-a-gogo!”
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Actor 1: “Hey, you gotcher dystopian science fiction premise on my reality!”
Actor 2: “Oh yeah? Well, you tainted my dystopian science fiction premise with your reality!”
(Actors 1 & 2 in unison): “Wow! Two great tastes that go together!”
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My cousin refused to kayak in the ocean with his father and sister, saying “I don’t deliberately hang out anywhere I’m not at the top of the food chain.”
He was talking about sharks and orcas, but I’m sure he’d include flesh-eating bacteria in that list, too.
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He only thinks he is at the top of the food chain.
Even the cells of his [and everyone else’s] body are vastly outnumbered by the biota harbored by it, some of them just waiting for the chance to turn him into a large lump of goo.
Call 'em a delicacy, and they will be hunted to extinction…
Seeing a loved one deteriorate before your eyes is heartbreaking.
Keep yourself safe, amigo.
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On that note; William Meikle’s The Creeping Kelp is about some shuggoths who start to utilise plastic to build structures in the North Sea.
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I’m seeing it in the forests of northern Ontario; the understory is dying off, so that where there used to be lush shrubs and and ground covers, there are only bare tree trunks, and in some spots, the soil is being washed away because there are no plants to hold it in place in torrential downpours.
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I’ll just leave this here:
Fuzzy Caterpillar’s Venomous Sting Causes Pain, Nausea | Patch PM | Decatur, GA Patch
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They are good eatin’ and there are lionfish hunting contests. There are also many folks regularly going out to kill as many of 'em as poss.
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yup! lionfish ceviche is awesome!
lionfish derbies are also successful at taking thousands of these voracious, rapidly reproducing, invasive fish out of the waters that was never their habitat and where they do not belong!
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