What marine creature haunts your psyche the most? The great white shark? Sharks in general? Even the biggest sharkophobe, or rabid advocate of shark nets (or in more extreme sharkophobic cases – culling) would at least probably be grudgingly in awe of these magnificent killing machines – while simultaneously soiling themselves at the thought of meeting them in a dark alley.
What about venomous or poisonous sea beasties? (Ed’s note: there’s a difference between venomous and poisonous creatures. If you don’t already know the difference, e-mail proof of EFT payment and we shall send you an e-mail explaining.) Thankfully, although we do have some truly dangerously venomous creatures in our waters, like sea snakes, scorpion fish and stonefish, we don’t have things like the box jellyfish or the blue ringed octopus, creatures so venomous they make Australia as inviting as Syria. However, most of our nastily venomous critters prefer tropical waters – haha KZN. Still, venomous species abound, but most of them are relatively harmless, barring the odd stingray.
Also, here’s a Trident Tip; despite imagining them on a bit of rice with soy sauce and wasabi and ginger – do not eat any blaasoppies (pufferfish) you may encounter. Even though they are apparently edible, their livers are more toxic than a Hollywood relationship.
What about electric eels – and jellyfish? What about those little sacs of unpleasant bubblegum-like organisms with the most innocuous name ever – bluebottles? Sure, none of these would count as most surfer’s ideas of fun creatures to share the waves with, but most can be avoided with a smidgen of common sense.
“Arbacia punctulata (purple sea urchin) (Sanibel Island, Florida, USA) 1” by James St. John is licensed with CC BY 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
“Punk in London May 2007” by zoer is licensed with CC BY-NC 2.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/
No, for Trident it’s those little spiky balls of bastardry, the sea urchin. In certain parts of the world, their spines are pretty damn venomous, but here in good ol’ SA, they are a mere annoyance – albeit an extreme annoyance. Still this fact doesn’t make this little prick (Author’s note: Ha! See what I did there?!) any more likeable, let alone adorable. Sea urchins, despite resembling anime punk balls of spiny weirdness, would be unlikely to ever be called cuddly.
Admittedly sea urchins do look kinda harmless. The critters go about their merry way in shallow rock pools about as slowly as service delivery in South Africa. Of course, once you stand on one of these spiny sods it’s an entirely different story. It’s not always that their spines are particularly sore when piercing the skin. It’s the sheer hassle of trying to remove them. They are hard – but brittle – like the fragile ego’s of millennials. Peeing on the embedded spines does help dissolve them, as does vinegar – but call Trident a prude when we say “no thanks, there are far more fun ways to end up smelling of pee – we’ll take our chances.” And of course, unless your chosen surf spot conveniently happens to have a decent fish ‘n chips shop nearby, good luck getting vinegar.
Sea urchins feed mainly on algae, so they are partly responsible for keeping the ocean clean. There’s a plus in their favour. Also, the adventurous do eat them, but don’t quote Trident on our local species being edible. Rather, give them a wide berth – or succumb to wearing booties. Just not in tropical waters. Rather stand on sea urchins (or stonefish) barefoot than look a right poephol in boardshorts and booties. One last point. Sea urchins evolved without the burden of having a brain. Just like politicians.
