Sea creatures’ attack on young teen proves the beach can be a nasty place

Flesh-eating sea lice.... Good god, no!

Sixteen-year-old Sam Kanizay from Brighton Beach, Melbourne had just come home from playing football and his legs were tired and very sore after all that exercise. Doing the logical thing of giving them a dip in cold water, he headed across the road into the sea and stood in the cool water in an effort to soothe his legs. When he hopped out, he soon realised his feet and calves were bleeding. The teen ran inside and told his dad what had happened. This was when the two found thousands of tiny bites covering poor Sam’s legs!

16-year-old Sam Kanizay in hospital after he emerged from a dip in the ocean with his legs covered in blood after sea lice attack pic.twitter.com/NMRAZ6yXwG

— Andy A (@andyleventi) August 7, 2017

According to the Guardian Australia, Sam’s dad said that once they got Sam's legs cleaned up, the bleeding would start immediately again and so they went straight to hospital. The teen also rated the pain eight out of ten when arriving. What caused all the grief, pain and panic? Sea lice, also known as lysianassid amphipods. These tiny crustaceans it seems, are attracted to chemicals in meat or flesh. Yikes.

Sam Kanizay's dad thinks these bugs bit his son. He caught them with a piece of meat at Brighton after teen was attacked @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/b7hah3YCYV

— Jodi Lee (@jodilee_7) August 7, 2017

Although they don’t cause lasting damage, they’ve caused us enough mental scaring for one evening and given Sam a day he’ll probably never forget. Holiday makers, although this seems to be incredibly rare, it might be a good idea to stay cautious.