A snorkeler in Egypt’s Red Sea thought he came across a beautiful seashell only later to realize how “lucky” he was to be alive.
Frank, who wished to keep his last name private, picked up the shell-looking item and admired it. He thought about taking it home as a souvenir for his first trip to a coral reef, but decided against it, thankfully. A few months later, he saw a picture of the same item online and it dawned on him: he held a cone snail.
Dr. Nyssa Silbiger, an associate director at the Uehiro Center for the Advancement of Oceanography, told Newsweek that she believes the photo shows a cone snail. However, she cannot tell, based on the picture, if it is an empty shell or one with a live snail inside.
“Cone snails are very venomous and dangerous to humans,” she said. “They should be left alone, but so should all wildlife.”
Cone snails are one of the most venomous animals on earth, according to an Ocean Conservatory article. Commonly found in coral reefs or hiding in the sand, cone snails have a “harpoon-like” tooth, called a radula, that extends a tube and injects toxic venom. It is used to hunt and paralyze fish and worms before the cone snail consumes them, however, humans can also be jabbed by stepping or picking it up.
The article stated that there are about 600 to 700 species of cone snails, all of which are venomous. The toxins in the venom will vary between species. It will typically cause initial tingling or numbness at the injection site before spreading to the limb and eventually the entire body.
Frank said he had never heard of cone snails but wanted to seek opinions from the internet about the true danger he put himself in. He took a screenshot of the GoPro video he filmed while underwater holding the cone snail and posted it to the Reddit subreddit r/animalid.
“…[I] decided to post it on Reddit to find out exactly which cone snail it is and how dangerous it really is,” Frank told Newsweek via Reddit messaging. “The comments seem to have reached the exact species, however, there are a lot of opinions about the real danger.
He couldn’t believe his escape from fate. He only that it was “a pretty seashell.” It never occurred to him that it might have been dangerous, worrying more about sharks or jellyfish he might’ve encountered.
Redditor Reactions
Frank’s Reddit post under his account AArdvarkPaws amassed over 4,800 likes and 300 comments as of Friday. Stunned, viewers thought he was “insane” for daring to pick up the cone snail.
“You’re lucky and you’re also foolish,” one user commented.
Another suggested: “Don’t pick up any wildlife, not only because of potential danger but because it’s disruptive to them.”
A third person said: “Snorkeling/diving rule I live by: Don’t touch anything.”
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