They’re one of Australia’s most deadly marine creatures, killing more people than sharks, but do we take them as seriously?

One of Australia’s most deadly marine creatures is often not taken seriously enough according to experts.

Box jellyfish are often underestimated with their plastic bag-looking bodies and long stringlike tentacles, yet they have been responsible for many deaths.

The latest was 14-year-old Mark Angelo Ligmayo who went into cardiac arrest after being stung by a box jellyfish in Mackay, Queensland in February.

While it is common to think that the box jellyfish just simply floats about, Mackay mayor Greg Williamson told ABC News that they are “actually hunting”.

“They’re almost predatory and can swim faster than an Olympic swimmer,” he said.

“They heard their prey into shallow water.”

It was in waist-high shallow water that Mark Angelo was attacked by the jellyfish. He had been in the water for 10 minutes before emerging from the water wrapped in two metres of tentacles. Despite being doused with almost 30 litres of vinegar, the boy went into cardiac arrest.

The tentacles of the box jellyfish are lethal, carrying millions of barbs of venom that can go through human skin and rapidly travel to the heart. Health authorities advise to immediately call triple-0 and treat stings with vinegar. The vinegar inactivates the jelly’s nematocyst clusters, which are the cells the poisonous barbs are attached to, thereby allowing the tentacles to be removed.

They are also extremely fast, reaching maximum speeds of four knots (around 7.4 kilometres an hour) and almost always hunt in swarms.

Associate professor at James Cook University’s Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine has been researching venomous animals for over 20 years. He found that the box jellyfish hunt, much the same way as humans fish.

“The nematocyst clusters look like a series of bright pearls, which the jellyfish twitches to attract the attention of its prey, like a series of fishing lures,” he said.

“It’s a very deliberate and selective form of prey capture.”

Professor Seymour also said that the length of the tentacles indicated the jellyfish preferred hunting during the day.

“During the night we saw they were less active and not fishing. They contract their tentacles down to four to five centimetres long, with the nematocyst clusters all bunched up,” he said.

During the daylight hours, he found the jellies would stretch out their tentacles by as much as 1.2 metres, spacing the nematocyst clusters out “like a fishing line”.

Box jellyfish are extremely common along the coasts of north Queensland in summer and Mark Angelo’s recent death has left authorities trying to find the best way to prevent further incidents.

Mayor Williamson told ABC News that the Mackay council was considering using drones to monitor the coastline for jellyfish. The drones would be able to take footage that shows if a jellyfish swarm is headed for beaches. Drones are often used to detect sharks and other hazards.

Other preventive measures are also being considered including kits that test for box jellyfish DNA in the water and a topical cream that acts as a jellyfish repellent, ABC News reported.

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