It’s getting to that time of the year again when the beaches begin to get busy. I was asked the other day if I’d ever heard of a weaver fish. Yes I have and the bottom of my foot has met one. I then went on to explain that they are little fish that hang around in the shallows waiting for people to stand on them. My niece stood on one last year at Poppit but that’s the first time for the Davies family as far as I’m aware.
Now it is a pretty painful experience for a short time. It can be more serious in young children or older adults, but with kids showing them lots of sympathy and explaining what’s happening will probably help and not dismissing a tiny couple of cuts on their feet as not painful and to stop making a fuss.
Sand shoes and wetsuit boots will pretty much ensure you don’t suffer, but I like feeling the sand between my toes so I have to say I don’t bother in July often. However my children are scared stiff of staning on them which is unfortunate and it’s pretty rare that you do stand on one in Poppit. I suppose for a better picture you should ask some of the RNLI lifeguards and to how many ‘event’ they have had in the last few weeks. My bet is between 1 and none.
Popular opinion says the best treatment is to put the affected area into the hottest water you can stand to put your foot in. This breaks down the poison and reduces the pain. If you are in the middle of the beach there’s not a lot of hot water around so I’m not sure how much use that is. The other nice urban myth is urine helps, but other than having a laugh at someone else’s expense from what I’ve read it makes little difference, and I would sooner just deal with the pain I think.