Stonefish and Stupidity...

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Well, I am now just waiting to see if my dad becomes a new Darwin Awards candidate. In a surprising development yesterday (Sunday), he caught a stonefish. I didn't think we got stonefish this far south (I live on the Gold Coast, which is the southern end of Queensland in Australia), and now I'm frightened to go into the water ever again....

A stonefish, in case you don't know, is a real fugly thing that looks like an outcrop of coral and stone. The saying (or part of one) 'ugliness goes all the way to the bone' really applies here, as it has very deadly venom. Let me put it this way, if poor Steve Irwin got hit by a full lot of stonefish venom rather than a stingray barb, his last hours of life would have been agonising (and so it was probably merciful that poor Steve got hit by a stingray, so to speak).

Apparently, you have to be careful walking around some parts of the Great Barrier Reef, as you might actually step on a stonefish. And THAT'S painful. We're talking major pain and damage.

And my father, who I thought had more common sense, actually used a net to catch one off his jetty!! ! When he rang me up and asked me what to do, I suggested he ring up the Department of Fisheries or whatever does that in Australia. Judging by the tone of his voice at the time, he didn't......

I think he's keeping it in a bucket.....

That's the most poinsonous fish! I saw it on Animal Planet.

Whew! That story makes me glad I have an irrational fear of all critters.

I love Animal Planet

I don't know much about stonefish
They sound scary though

If they weren't poisonous, then they'd merely win 'ugliest fish in the sea' awards....

I think they've got a helluva bite though, but as far as I know, they don't bite humans....

Don't hafta...

It's the me of the sea!

It looks a bit p*ssed off

That's the scariest picture I've ever seen.

How many years have Stonefish been around for?

Wow, that is one ugly fish. Yea, that just reinforces my aversion to the ocean even more.

Ugly doesn't even begin to describe that thing! And definitely not in a good mood!

I think it's cute

Yeah, in a grumpy sort of way.

You kidding? I doubt there's a fish that I know of that is even less aesthetic without exposure to radiation or toxic chemicals!! !

Fugly in appearance, and with venom to boot. Anyone here read the James Bond short story 'Octopussy'?

Now I'm going to have to see that thing in a few hours' time that my dad caught....

I am just hoping beyond hope that it is just an innocent, if ugly, fish, but I found a picture on the net that had a stonefish photographed in the Southport Seaway, not far from where I live.....

that looks like a picture i saw on the internet called the lotus tit

Familiar with it, The internet is truely a horrifying terrible place.