Seasonal blooms of jellyfish around Thailand are causing pain and worry for swimmers, with a French boy killed by the venom of a box jellyfish in Ko Phangan Saturday. Thousands of people gathered in the harbor at Khao Laem Ya-Mu Ko Samet National Park in Rayong over the weekend to observe a swarm of jellies there.
Phangan acting district chief Kasitdet Thongchu on Monday (August 25) asked local administrative authorities and beachside hotels to post signs warning of poisonous jellyfish and prepared first aid in case they are stung by them.
The measures followed the death of the five-year-old boy from France.
Yongyos Thammawut of the provincial public health office in Surat Thani said the boy went into shock from stings from the poisonous tentacles of a box jellyfish while with his parents on Khuad beach on Saturday (August 23). He died as his parents and a guide were taking him to Phangan hospital for treatment, Dr Yongyos added.
The case was reported to the provincial public health office in Surat Thani on Monday.
The beach is popular for swimming and snorkelling.
The boy became entangled in the box jellyfish's long tentacles, which ran 20 cm deep. Fully grown box jellyfish, some of the most-poisonous animals on earth, can reach three meters long.
They can be found seasonally off the beaches of Ko Lanta and Haad Nopparatthara-Mu Ko Phi Phi National Marine Park of Krabi province, Nam Bor bay in Phuket province, Cha-am beach in Phetchaburi province, and some beaches on Tao, Samui and Phangan islands.