Weaver fish have a nasty sting

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Weaver Fish

A bit about weaver fish.
This is a small fish about 5 -15 cm long. It has venomous spines along its dorsal fin which stick up some times this is the only part showing as they bury themselves in the sand. These fish are very well camouflaged so if your at a sandy beach and the waters warm...... First contact is a sensation like stepping on a pin or needle! After a while the poison starts to work and immense agony begins, (depending how bad it got you) with swelling of the foot and numbness. The poison can cause intense pain, and apparently deaths have even been recorded. Soaking the effected area in hot water helps removes the toxicity of the venom depending on how bad it is you will want this water as hot as you can take. One got me a few years back when I got in the sea, my foot became itchy and was bothering me in the line up, after about an hour I found my ability to surf was reduced, this was because my foot was now numb! Mine wasn't too bad I used some hot water and all was better although it still wasn't right the next day!

Weaver Fish Stories

Hi Mark, I got stung on the nipple in Brighton a few years ago I jumped off my board in the shallows and it got me, I don't recommend it to any one! Steve from Brighton


I was chuffed yesterday (saturday 8.9.07) i live in Weymouth Dorset and took my son crabbing with my husband and a few friends and I caught a weaver fish believe it or not with my sons crab line. Its the first fish have caught and with a crab line so I guess the bacon did work. Amanda from Weymouth


I took a trip to Santander (North coast Spain) to visit my friends in 1998. They were teaching English as an excuse for surfing. I was a learner and used to naively paddle out into the big surf after them and just get mullered. One evening the waves were milder and I thought "Right this is it". I was pushing the board out through knee deep water when it felt like I'd stepped on a fishhook. I carried on out but the pain started up my leg. I had no idea what had got me and hobbled back to the beach Cafe for advice or an antidote but it was closed. My mind panicked and the pain was intensifying so I hopped (literally) 200 yds over to the otherside of the bay where my friends were way out to sea. Dusk was falling. I screamed and waved madly at them for some time eventually catching their attention. The Spanish local among them muttered "Scorpion fish", stuck me in the back of his van and drove at speed to the local hospital. By this stage the pain was frighteningly beserk. At the hospital they stuck me in a wheelchair still in my wetsuit and pushed me into a curtained room. I swear they were giggling at me behind the cloth. Eventually a nurse appeared and produced a needle the size of which produced a reflex "NO" from me understandable in any language. I knew where that was about to go. So second choice was a brown horse pill but it did the trick. There was still a residual niggling pain in my toe about a month later when a letter with a Spanish postmark plopped on the mat. The girls from the bar? My mates had learnt to write? No. A bill for a for about a 100 notes from Santander hospital. Did I pay it? Did I fk. BTW they like sandy shallows so you should scuff along as you walk. Apparently. Sent in by Charlie**


I WAS SURFIN AT WITTERING A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO , THE SWELL WAS SMALL AND AS I RODE A WAVE IN , I STEPPED OF THE BOARD STRAIGHT ON TO A WEAVER FISH , AT THE TIME I THOUGHT IT WAS A DRUGGIES NEEDLE OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT HAD BEEN WASHED UP ONTO THE BEACH , THE PAIN WAS NOT IMMEDIATE, BUT WHEN IT CAME THROUGH IT HURT A LOT , I PUT THE FOOT IN A BOWL OF HOT WATER AND IT KILLED THE PAIN , I HAD A BLACK THING IN MY FOOT FOR MONTHS AFTER, I DON'T PADDLE ABOUT IN THE SHALLOWS NOW , AND HAVEN'T BEEN STUNG SINCE, JUST BAD LUCK I GUESS. ROB THE TREE SURGEON.


My son, daughter and I decided to stop off at the beach at Tullan Strand in Northwest Ireland after our weekly shopping to surf for a bit, and just as we decided to get back to shore and head for home, Lauren, who is seven, said she thought something had bit her foot. I looked and could see only a small red mark, and so thought she had been poked by a bit of broken shell. We continued on up the beach and she began to cry and say it really hurt-by the time we had got to a rock to sit down on, so I could have another look, she was nearly screaming and the bottom of her whole foot was red. I got the attention of a passing surfing class and their instructor, who told us to see if the coffee guy in the car park could give us some hot water; as hot as she could stand it. No coffee guy to be seen, but two other surfers had water and a camp stove, so they brought a pan over. What a pair of heroes! They stayed long enough to reheat the water twice!! Within minutes the pain was subsiding, and the instructor reappeared with some vinegar to add to he water, which he had been told helped too. Another girl who passed said she had been stung too, earlier in the week, so surfers be warned; I'm certainly not going out again without access to a camp stove! Julie

This Sunday (23.5.10) my two daughters and I headed off to the Witterings. Unable to get onto the West Wittering beach we went to East Wittering and settled down to our picnic. Not long after I saw a Mother and daughter rush up the beach from the shallows. The Mother looked concerned and so I asked if everything was alright, she said she thought her daughter had been stung. The 10 year old daughter was feeling very woozy and had trouble walking, there was clearly something in her wrist as it was bleeding. I took out two tiny transparent spikes while one daughter rushed off to get water and the other daughter kept the little girl awake by talking to her as she was clearly in shock. The Mother was amazingly organised and had already guessed it might be a weaver fish spike. She knew about the hot water cure and carried her daughter to the first aid area where they bathed her arm in a bowl of hot water as hot as she could stand. I don’t think the position had taken too much of a hold because the spike was out and the Mother reacted amazingly quickly. If we hadn’t been so close to hot water and a first aid centre it would have been much more alarming and much more painful. It helped too that she had been stung in her arm and not stood on the fish with her foot. I had never in my whole life heard of weaver fish before. I have swam, paddled, lounged and sat on the beaches around the UK for the last 43 years and can only believe myself very fortunate to not have ever been stung. We now wouldn’t dream of going in the sea without footwear and if we ever visit a deserted beach I will try and remember my little burner to heat water. Emma in Surrey

Many thanks to your internet site. I live on a yacht in spain the costa del sol, today a fisherman was stung by a small fish, by placing the info about the fish into the web we found you and your stories. with this info i was able to help quickly. thanks again and happy surfing.....

If you have any weaver fish stories just email them to us and I will add them to the page.