Beware of this sometimes fatal venom animal

Getting bitten by a jellyfish while you bathe is not very pleasant. But if you are not allergic, these bite are generally safe.

Which is not the case with physalies. Their presence on the Basque coast even led to the closure of several “until new order” beaches from Friday July 25, 2025, reports Basque country news.

This marine animal is indeed good more stinging than the jellyfish And, even stranded and died for a while, he continues to present a danger.

Very stinging tentacles

As the Center Antipoisons of Belgium recalls, physalie, which can also be called sea bladder or Portuguese galley, “has a Float filled with air which keeps it on the surface and is equipped with very stinging tentaclesmeasuring up to 40 meters in length ”.

The emerged part measures about twenty centimeters. It looks from afar a small, translucent, translucent, pink and blue reflections, surmounted by a crest evoking a sail.

But it is above all his tentacles that are to be feared, because stinging. In addition, these “can breakderive according to the waves and are not very visible from the bathers ”.

This marine animal normally lives in tropical and subtropical seas, but it can derive over long distances. This is why we sometimes find it on our ratings, and regularly in Aquitaine.

But from the moment you spot a physalie, if the red flag is not hoisted, it is better to “do not swim or practice nautical leisure involving frequent contact with water”, notes the regional health agency (ARS) of the Pays de la Loire.

Rash, nausea, even death

Even stranded or dead, it should not be not touch the physaliebecause it remains stinging. And as the French Society of Emergency Medicine (SFMU) notes, it is also venomous.

Therefore, at the time of the bite, the first symptom is a “Immediate and intense pain”usually for an hour. Then a rash develops, for several hours.

After a delay of fifteen minutes to an hour, general signs of variable severity can manifest itself: nausea, vomiting, pulse acceleration, chest pain and abdomen, breathing difficulties, muscle and joint pain, discomfort, dizziness, fever.

SFMU notes that there may be Anaphylactic reactions (or allergic), but it’s rare.

Severe complications after a physalie bite are possible, up to death. Massive edema, necrosis or renal failure can occur.

The first gestures

If you get stuck, you have to act quickly. As soon as symptoms appear, it is obviously necessary call 15. But the ARS Pays de la Loire gives some first aid gestures in the event of contact with a physalie:

• Do not apply heat because it will amplify the burn.
• Remove, without crushing them, the visible filaments with a double pliers or a glove
• Apply dry sand (especially not humid) then allow to dry before scraping the remaining cells with a credit card
• Rinse with sea water without rubbing

If she looks like him, the physalie has nothing to do with the Vélelle, which we see regularly failed on the coasts.

It is harmless, even if it remains stinging. She looks like a blue cartilaginous ring Oval in shape with a small translucent triangular sail.

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