Lytham Coastguard responded yesterday evening (03.08.2020) to aid a young child who was suffering having been stung in the sea off St Anne’s beach. When the Coastguard crews arrived they found the child was in pain due to a wound on their foot – the injury believed to have been caused by the young casualty accidentally stepping on a weever fish. The Coastguard assisted the child off the beach and provided appropriate medical advice.

There are two species of weever fish, the lesser weever and greater weever. Weever fish are rare examples of venomous fish which inhabit our waters – both species have spines on their backs and gill covers which secrete a potent venom. Lesser weever fish come into shallow water and are the species most likely to be encountered by bathers in the summer months.  Once the spines of the weever fish have pierced your skin a venom is discharged. The effect of weever fish venom varies from person to person. Some only suffering from relatively mild pain. However, in many the pain can be excruciating, the part of the body which has been stung becoming red, inflamed and swollen.