On Sunday, October 03, 2004 9:15 PM, Jeff Kell wrote:

(snip)
> As much as I hate missing the trip (mentally and financially) I don't know
> that I would be terribly excited about an abundance of jellies, one of my
> worst fears (probably akin to my aversion to bees, wasps, hornets, and
other
> stingy land-based insects).  I can handle the thimbles as necessary, but
> really big, nasty jellies would make me walk on water.  And you Aussies
can
> definitely keep your deadly box jellies.  The thought of that will perhaps
> keep me from diving "down under" ever!

Mate!  Just a quick look through the pages of , 'Dangerous Marine Animals of
the Indo-Pacific Region' ....
Barracuda, moray eels, gropers, killer whales, Great White sharks, Tiger
sharks, blue whalers, bronze whalers, black whalers, hammerheads, oceanic
white tips, etc., bearded ghouls,bullrouts, butterfly cod, fortescues, old
wifes, scorpionfish, stingrays, stonefish, surgeonfish, blue-ringed octopus,
cone shells, fire coral, sea snakes, electric rays, blubber jellyfish,
Lion's mane jellies ('Snotties'), Irukandji's, Jimbles, mauve stingers,
Portuguese man-o'wars, sea wasps and other itchy things!  (And that's
assuming that you actually make it into the water after dealing with the 140
or so varieties of snakes - including death adders, taipans, copperheads,
black, brown and tiger snakes; the seventeen or so varieties of dangerous
spiders, and the drop-bears!)  :-)

... and it's easy to see why OZ only has a population of 20 million!  :-)))

Strike