Watling cited in Live Science article on flesh-eating amphipods
Les Watling, School of Marine Sciences professor emeritus, was quoted in a Live Science article concerning the rare attack on an Australian teenager by tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans known as sea fleas, or lysianssid amphipods. The teen sustained hundreds of tiny needle-like wounds which bled profusely. The article states that anticoagulants produced by the amphipods could account for the excess bleeding of the wounds. According to Watling, none of the Lysianssid family amphipods are known to produce an anticoagulant, however, no one has yet researched that particular adaptation in that particular group of crustaceans. “If an anticoagulant is present, it would be because the amphipods were preying on or parasitizing the fish,” he said. Amphipods in this group are mostly scavengers and an important part of the marine food web. But some are active predators and although tiny, their sharp mandibles are capable of piercing human flesh, he said. However according to the article, amphipods normally don’t actively attack people. “I do wonder if he had scratches or something that would have attracted the amphipods,” Watling said. “But they might have just determined him to be ‘fish’ and decided to have dinner.”