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Friday, August 1, 2025

Man-O-War sighted in Manzanilla and Mayaro

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2037 days ago
20200102
Man-o-war jellyfish on Manzanilla Beach

Man-o-war jellyfish on Manzanilla Beach

COURTESY KELSEY MARHONG FACEBOK PAGE

The Of­fice of Dis­as­ter Pre­pared­ness and Man­age­ment (ODPM) yes­ter­day con­firmed that there have been sight­ings of the Por­tuguese Man-O-War on the beach­es of Man­zanil­la and to a less­er ex­tent, Ma­yaro.

Ac­cord­ing to the In­si­tute of Ma­rine Af­fairs (IMA), the Por­tuguese Man-O-War is a species of the siphonophore, a group of an­i­mals re­lat­ed to the jel­ly­fish. The ten­ta­cles of the Man-o-War con­tains ven­omous sting­ing cells that, while not poi­so­nous to hu­mans, can cause ex­treme­ly painful blis­ter­ing, sting­ing and burn­ing sen­sa­tions to the skin, vom­it­ing and paral­y­sis. Symp­toms of se­vere stings and al­ler­gic re­ac­tions may in­clude dif­fi­cul­ty in breath­ing and un­con­scious­ness. Dead Por­tuguese Man-O-War com­ing in­to con­tact with the skin can re­sult in sting­ing sen­sa­tions for days af­ter its death.

In light of this, the ODPM is en­cour­ag­ing all cit­i­zens and tourists to ex­er­cise vig­i­lance and ex­treme cau­tion when vis­it­ing these beach­es. The ODPM is al­so urg­ing per­sons to take the fol­low­ing pre­cau­tion­ary mea­sures in the event the Por­tuguese Man-O-War is sight­ed:

° Be cau­tious about swim­ming in the sea since the ten­ta­cles of the Por­tuguese Man-O-War may ex­tend far be­hind or be­low its float and can break off and drift un­seen.

° Avoid touch­ing or han­dling the Por­tuguese Man-O-War.

° Avoid step­ping on the colour­ful float as this leaves the sting­ing ten­ta­cles be­hind and ex­posed to oth­ers who may be neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed by the sting.

If you have been stung by the Por­tuguese Man-O-War:

° Vis­it your near­est dis­trict health fa­cil­i­ty for treat­ment.

° Ad­min­is­ter vine­gar (acetic acid) over the af­fect­ed area(s). Care­ful­ly re­move the sting­ing ten­ta­cles with a tweez­er, stick or leaves and avoid touch­ing them with ex­posed skin.

° Avoid rub­bing or ap­ply­ing fresh wa­ter to the af­fect­ed area as this may cause un­trig­gered cells to fire and sting­ing to con­tin­ue.

° Im­merse the af­fect­ed area in non-scald­ing hot wa­ter for 30-45 min­utes.

Sight­ings of the Por­tuguese Man-O-War should be re­port­ed to the Dis­as­ter Man­age­ment Unit of the Min­istry of Rur­al De­vel­op­ment and Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment or the To­ba­go Emer­gency Man­age­ment Agency (TEMA).

The San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion and the Ma­yaro/Rio Claro Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion are mon­i­tor­ing the sit­u­a­tion.


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