Question:
I have never heard of sea lice. What are they? what do they look like when
swimming, and what on your body ? Your hair? Do they bite? What do
they look like?
Answer:
I was on a night dive off of Key West on Halloween of last year and
before the dive I felt a little conspicous as I was the only one on
the boat wearing a full 3mm wetsuit. After the dive some of the other
divers who were only wearing bathing suits complained about some kind
of itchy stings. At the time someone said something about jellyfish
larvae. I don't know if it was sea lice or not not or if that was out
of season, but fortunately I didn't have any stings at all. I didn't
feel quite so bad about having my full wetsuit on after that little
episode.
For the last two years I have been using a Sea Lice suit, made by Aquatic
Wetsuits. Its really just a normal high quality skin suit, with a couple of
very important modifications: at the wrists, it has Dry suit seals, as it
does on the neck. There is also a special hood with a "neck dam" which
further prevents water from flowing in with sea lice. Since I got tyhe suit
2 years ago, I have never had sea lice on my body---although on a few
occasions I had some stings on my face where it was exposed ( this is rare
for some reason, no matter how thick they are, I don't usually get stings on
my face).
Sea Lice and Sea Wasps are different animals. Sea Lice are normally
thought to be larva of Thimble Jellyfish. They are very small and can
not usually be seen, just felt. Sea Wasps are any of a number of box
jellyfish. The Florida version is almost completely transparent but is
still visible. The grow to about 3 inches lone and about an inch
across. They generally look like a box kite with a string tail on each
of the four corners. While they all have a serious sting, strength of
their venom varies greatly. The Florida version can be painful but
that's about it. The Australian version is generally considered deadly.
