By Candice
Marshall
27 March, 2013
A curious
child from Paradise Point is responsible for the discovery of a new species of
box jellyfish found in a local canal.
Nine-year-old
Saxon Thomas found the new species when fishing in his backyard canal.
Scientists
have now confirmed the jellyfish is a new scientific discovery.
But Australian
Marine Stinger Advisory services director Lisa Gershwin says there is a lot more to learn about it.
"We're
still trying to name it," Ms Gershwin says.
"I
haven't met Saxon yet but my intention is to one of these days when I meet him ask him
what he would like it to be named... I wanna give him the choice to name
it because I think it's such a wonderful thing that here's these kids out
playing with nature and going 'hey wait, that's different - what's that?' -
and now we know. What a fabulous find."
"A new
species is always very exciting. We've got a bit more work to do to work out
exactly what it is... but it's definitely in the same family as the box
jellyfish. But it's not THE box jellyfish which is a big relief," Dr Ekins says.
"The
first thing we did was to make sure it wasn't the chironex fleckeri box jellyfish
that's infamous for killing people, because if that's suddenly appearing down
here on the Sunshine
Coast
However, it is
not yet known if this new species is dangerous in its own way.
"We don't
know about that... whether it gives you a sting is most likely. It's probably
not life threatening but we don't know."
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