On Saturday Sam Kanizay decided to cool off in the ocean after football at the Dendy Street Beach in Brighton.
“After being in the water for only a short time Sam’s legs felt numb and tingly” Sam told The Age.
“My first instinct was that I must have stepped on a rock,” he said. “But I realised that couldn’t have been it, because it was evenly distributed over my whole ankle and foot.”
He went home to try and wash all the blood off,but the blood continued to pour from tiny prick like holes in his legs.
On Sunday afternoon, Sam’s legs were still seeping blood but doctors had not found a cause.
Sam said a nurse had suggested sea lice were to blame, “but it was just a guess”.
Jarrod returned to the beach with some raw steak and a net to try and figure out what exactly happened and what seems to be the cause are in fact sea fleas! The video above shows the reaction the “sea fleas” had to the raw meat.
Scientist Dr Genefor Walker-Smith examined the bugs and told The Age , The fleas were the most likely culprit for Sam’s wounds.She added that the number of bites was unusual but that sea fleas are common both in Australia and around the world.
“They’re there all the time; you could put a piece of meat in the water, anywhere in the bay, and you could find them,” Dr Walker-Smith said.
“I think this is quite a rare thing. I really just think [Sam] was in the wrong place at the wrong time, probably.”
Dr Walker-Smith said the fleas were no cause of alarm but that swimmers should avoid swimming near dead fish which the fleas feed on.
