Specimen J 72701 Amphipoda

Summary

On 6 August 2017 a Melbourne teenager was hospitalised for profuse bleeding after he was bitten on the ankles and feet while standing in the water at Dendy Street Beach at Brighton, Victoria. It was unclear what had caused his injuries so his father returned to the beach and collected a sample using raw meat as bait. The samples were brought to Melbourne Museum where Natural Sciences staff identified the majority of the animals in the sample as Lysianassid amphipods. These globally occurring amphipods are scavengers known for swarming around dead fish and other food sources. Bites that bleed freely are reported quite frequently, though rarely to the extent encountered in this event.

The incident received local, national and international media attention.