Epidemic thunderstorm asthma is thought to be triggered by a combination of high pollen levels and a certain type of storm.

In a bid to identify patients who may be at risk of thunderstorm asthma attack, GPs are being urged to ask ‘their wheezers if they sneeze, and sneezers if they wheeze’.

Ten people died in the epidemic thunderstorm asthma event in Melbourne in 2016.

Research published in The Lancet Planetary Health shows more than 70% of the patients in the Melbourne epidemic had untreated airway hyper-responsiveness, previous asthma with no symptoms in the past year, asthma-like symptoms not diagnosed, or seasonal allergic rhinitis with no asthma symptoms.

Professor Amanda Barnard, GP and the Chair of National Asthma Council Australia’s Guidelines Committee, told newsGP there are people with asthma whose symptoms are triggered in the spring through seasonal allergies.

‘We know that the people whose asthma attacks are triggered by thunderstorm, in particular, have ryegrass pollen allergies,’ she said.

Professor Barnard suggests GPs discuss these triggers with their patients.

‘Ask all your patients who wheeze – so everybody who has got asthma – if they also sneeze, [because] if they had allergic rhinitis as well they are particularly at risk,’ she said.

‘But also, people who have allergic rhinitis are at risk, so people who sneeze coming into this season. It’s really important that we [ask if] those people also wheeze or have any history of asthma.

‘So ask your wheezers if they sneeze, and ask your sneezers if they wheeze, which sounds a bit simplistic, but it’s getting across the notion that these people are particularly at risk of asthma that’s triggered by the release of pollens during thunderstorm.’

Epidemic thunderstorm asthma is thought to be triggered by a unique combination of high pollen levels and a certain type of thunderstorm, causing a large number of people to develop asthma symptoms over a short period of time.

Grass pollen grains are swept up in the wind and carried for long distances; some can burst open and release tiny particles that are concentrated in the wind gusts that come just before a thunderstorm. These particles are small enough to be breathed deep into the lungs and can trigger asthma symptoms, making it difficult to breathe.

This can become very severe, very quickly, and many people may require medical help at the same time.

The research in The Lancet Planetary Health shows those affected in 2016 were not the very young or very old, but rather those aged 20–59. Reasons behind this could include that individuals of this age are perhaps more likely to be outdoors, and potentially more active. Both of these factors would increase allergen load.

There was also a high prevalence of Asian or Indian ethnicity among the patients, including six of the 10 deaths.

Professor Barnard said it is especially important that the multicultural communities identified in the research, including any recently arrived immigrants, are ready for future thunderstorm asthma events.

‘People with asthma and/or allergic rhinitis need to ensure that they proactively manage their symptoms,’ she said.  ‘This includes having an up-to-date asthma action plan in place, prepared by their GPs. Those with poorly controlled asthma have the worst outcomes.

‘There is also a need for patients to better understand their risks and how to protect themselves and others, including how to apply asthma first aid.’

Professor Barnard said that, in primary care, prevention of asthma triggered by thunderstorms is based on:

• year-round asthma control
• regular low-dose inhaled corticosteroid treatment for most adults with asthma
• management of seasonal allergic rhinitis, including preventive intranasal corticosteroid treatment during the pollen season
• avoiding exposure to thunderstorms
• ensuring appropriate access to relievers during grass pollen season.

She said GPs can work with patients to maximise adherence with their medications, as well as ensuring they are using inhalers correctly.

‘We also know a whole lot of people don’t use their medication correctly so, therefore, the medications aren’t getting down into the lungs and doing the work that it should be doing,’ Professor Barnard said.

National Asthma Council Australia is holding six educational workshops on thunderstorm asthma for health professionals throughout September.

The workshops, which are running until 20 September, will include information on how to identify and manage at-risk patients, prevention and treatment of thunderstorm asthma, and managing allergic rhinitis in people with asthma.

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Caitlin Louey says she has lost trust in packaged foods following her major anaphylactic reaction.

It began as just another day at the library for Caitlin Louey and her friends.

It was about lunchtime and the 19-year-old was getting hungry. Luckily, she had brought a package of soy crisps from home.

But things went wrong from the moment she took the first bite.

‘I immediately felt my tongue swelling, my lips tingling, I couldn’t breathe, I had a racing heart and soon after I couldn’t talk,’ Ms Louey told newsGP.

‘It was scary … I was just focusing on staying alive.

‘I was lucky enough to have friends who looked after me and gave me the EpiPen before the paramedics arrived.’

The first-year medical student was diagnosed at the age of four with anaphylactic allergy to pecans, walnuts and peanuts, but is careful to avoid all nuts. Her soy crisps featured the precautionary label, ‘may contain traces of nuts’.

Researchers now want food labelling regulations tightened after a study found some people with allergies have anaphylactic reactions to packaged foods. Also first aid course focussed on Anaphylaxis available.

Published in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, the study involved the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, the University of Melbourne, Victoria University, the Royal Children’s Hospital, and the University of Sydney.

The nine-month survey of 864 Allergy and Anaphylaxis Australia members found that 58 respondents (6.7%) reported anaphylactic reactions to a packaged food where the suspected allergen was not a listed ingredient.

Of those 58, five (8.6%) said there was no Precautionary Allergen Label (PAL), 31 (53.5%) said there was a PAL, but it didn’t specify the suspected trigger food, and 22 (38%) said there was a PAL that did list it.

Suspected triggers included peanuts, other tree nuts, cashews, milk, eggs, walnuts, sesame seeds, and prawns.

Potential allergens must be declared on Australian food labels when they are present as ingredients or as components of food additives or processing aids. PAL is a voluntary system and uses statements such as ‘may contain traces’ or ‘may be present’.

Lead researcher and Melbourne School of Population and Global Health Allergy and Lung Health Unit postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Giovanni Zurzolo, told newsGP that PAL should be regulated and standardised, rather than voluntary.

‘We need regulation in place for precautionary allergen labelling,’ he said. ‘That system is voluntary, so the manufacturers can choose to do it or not. There is no regulation behind it.

‘Previous research shows that in a supermarket setting, over 60% of products contain a precautionary statement. So it is awfully confusing for a consumer to actually choose whether the food is safe or not.’

Dr Giovanni Zurzolo says the Precautionary Allergen Label system should be regulated and standardised, rather than voluntary.

Dr Zurzolo said VITAL, Voluntary Incidental Allergen Labelling, is a better risk-assessment tool already being used by some in the industry.

‘It is backed by scientific experts, which works on action levels, where if a product contains certain amounts of allergens, if it is above a threshold, it gets labelled with a statement,’ he said.

‘If it is below a threshold, then it gets labelled with no statement … but the problem is that it is not regulated by government, it is voluntary.

‘From a consumer perspective … the statement that they provide on the actual product when they deem that the product is unsafe is very similar to a normal precautionary statement.’

In addition, the VITAL system does not label safe products.

Dr Zurzolo believes Australia could also follow Japan’s lead and completely abolish precautionary labelling.

‘If manufacturers think there is a hint of a trace contamination, or the product could have come in contact with other allergens, then it gets labelled on the ingredients list,’ he said.

The study’s senior author, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and University of Melbourne Professor Katie Allen, describes anaphylaxis as a serious health issue.

‘This research shows how important accurate food labelling is,’ she said. ‘These reactions can be life-threatening.’

Ms Louey said her anaphylactic reaction, which is the worst she has ever experienced, has had lasting effects.

‘This reaction has had an immense effect on my anxiety,’ she said.

‘I have lost a lot of trust in packaged food and even just eating out. I can’t avoid everything that says “may contain traces”, because that’s impossible. Everything has that [warning] now.

‘So it does limit my freedom of choice and my own ability to know what is safe when I am eating.’

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Thousands of people with asthma are suffering with debilitating side-effects after taking medicine to treat their illness, a charity warns. Patients suffer weight gain, sleeplessness and depression after taking oral steroids with some developing cataracts, diabetes, brittle bones and even suicidal thoughts, Asthma UK found.

Samantha Walker, director of research and policy at Asthma UK, said: ‘Oral steroids are so toxic.’ Thousands of asthma patients reported sleeplessness, weight gain and even suicidal thoughts after taking oral steroids (Picture: Getty) Most of the 200,000 people in Britain with severe asthma are prescribed oral steroid tablets to reduce attacks. Tests have shown the drugs can cut the number of asthma attacks by up to 50% in some patients, The Times reports. If Theresa May really cares about workers’ rights she should ban tipping altogether The drugs work by blocking the effects of certain chemicals in the immune system, Asthma UK said. But a poll of thousands of people who suffer with asthma, conducted by the charity, found the drugs can leave some users depressed and suicidal.

More than half of those surveyed said they had put on weight after taking oral steroids and a similar amount reported increased hunger and sleeplessness. More than a third admitted they felt more anxious and had less energy on the drugs while slightly more people said they felt ‘irritable’ and suffered with tearfulness. Dr Walker warned that even low doses of oral steroids ‘should be avoided whenever possible’. Preventer inhalers contain low doses.

Asthma UK is calling for widespread use of monoclonal antibodies to replace oral steroids in treating asthma patients (Picture: PA) Andy Whittamore, clinical lead at Asthma UK and a practising GP, told The Times oral steroids are ‘stronger than inhalers’. ‘If people take high doses over a long period of time there can be nasty side-effects,’ he said. Young man discovers he has dementia at just 23 years old The charity is now calling for widespread use of a new generation of drugs called monoclonal antibodies. It argues the drugs have have been shown to cut the number of asthma attacks by 40% to 50% in suitable patients. While some of the drugs are already approved for NHS use, doctors have been slow to adopt them, Dr Walker said. Doctors tended to underappreciate the severity of side-effects for asthma patients, with assessment methods often not capturing their complexity, she said. How asthma affects patients Asthma affects the small tubes or airways that carry air in and out of the lungs, with attacks triggered by so-called allergens.

Allergens are substances that are harmless to the majority of people, but can cause an immune system reaction in those with the illness. This response leads to the lining of the lungs becoming inflamed and swollen, so the airways narrow, making it harder for air to pass through. Asthma is common but incurable and affects people of all ages – but often starts in childhood. Symptoms may improve or even go away as children grow older, but can return in adulthood. They include wheezing, breathlessness, a tight chest and coughing which get worse during an asthma attack. Treatment usually involves medication which is inhaled to calm down the lungs. Triggers for the condition include dust, air pollution, exercise and infections such as cold or flu.

Source: NHS Last month, health watchdogs also gave the green light to a new treatment that dramatically improves the day-to-day lives of patients with severe asthma. The procedure involves a tiny probe that resembles a whisk being inserted into the lung. This emits heat that shrinks scarred lung tissue and aids breathing. Studies have showed it reduces emergency hospital admissions for life-threatening asthma attacks by 55% – and benefits continue for a decade after treatment.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2018/10/02/thousands-of-people-with-asthma-suffer-debilitating-side-effects-of-toxic-drugs-7996950/?ito=cbshare

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

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Bangalow Shed men. Photo Brian Mackney.

Local Mullumbimby and Bangalow Men’s Sheds were happy to hear that they had received grant funding towards flooring and mental health training yesterday.

Mullumbimby has received $1,900 in grant funding to go towards improving shed safety for floor pavers, and Bangalow Men’s Shed has received $1,200 in grant funding to go towards a Mental Health First Aid training course.

‘I congratulate both Mullumbimby and Bangalow Men’s Sheds on their successful applications,’ said local Labor member for Richmond Justine Elliot.

‘Men’s Sheds play a vital role in supporting and enhancing the wellbeing of local men and the First Aid training and floor paving will further assist the health and safety of the Shed members.

‘The local district Men’s Sheds provide a positive space for local men to interact in a safe and inclusive environment. Importantly, Men’s Sheds also provide community support and are proven to reduce social isolation, enhance self-esteem and increase access to specific information about health.’

The National Shed Development Programme allows Men’s Sheds and organisations supporting a Men’s Shed within their community, to apply for funds to better respond to local needs.

The aim of the Programme through the provision of direct financial assistance is to:

·        Support health improvements through a focus on the social determinants of health through national activities in relation to key population groups such as men

·        Assist to address the health and wellbeing of the Shed members

·        Deliver activities and programmes

·        Improve facilities and the sustainability of Men’s Sheds across Australia

Details can be found at https://mensshed.org/

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The first doctor to assess shark attack victim Justine Barwick after she was pulled out of the water at Cid Harbour in the Whitsundays has praised the “first-class” first aid applied by her husband and friends, which he says may have saved her life.

It comes as a 12-year old girl has become the second shark victim in less than 24 hours after being bitten on the leg in the same area on Thursday afternoon.

Dr John Hadok — an emergency doctor at the Mackay Base Hospital — was on a nearby boat when the 46-year-old tourist was bitten on the upper right leg about 5:00pm on Wednesday.

He was alerted by people from another boat who had heard her screams, and travelled from boat to boat looking for help.

PHOTO: Dr John Hadok happened to be on a nearby boat in the Whitsundays, when the 46-year-old tourist was bitten. (ABC News: Melanie Groves)

“I guess it was one of those situations where everything came together, the poor woman had been helped back onto her boat by her husband and her friends, who applied absolutely perfect first aid,” he said.

“I was a little worried I was going to find severe bleeding still going, but they had been able to stop the bleeding.

“Justine was very, very ill.”

Dr Hadok said her injuries were life-threatening, and she was in an extreme state of hypervolemic shock by the time he arrived — a result of losing more than one fifth of your body’s blood supply.

“I was just over-awed with the courage of her husband. He was clearly devastated but was still able to take instructions and offer help,” he said.

“They must have been terrified because she was so clearly very badly injured.”

PHOTO: The woman was placed inside a dinghy and winched up to the helicopter. (Sandi White Photography)

The Mackay doctor also used to be a crew member of the RACQ CQ Rescue Helicopter as one of their retrieval doctors, and was able to discuss the best method to have her winched over radio.

“I made a bed out of boat cushions and we arranged it in such a way so that her legs were higher than her head because her blood pressure was unrecordable, she had no palpable pulse and I didn’t want her to be sitting up,” he said.

“In that sort of situation you really need advanced resuscitation equipment to improve it.”

But he said the first aid, where packing and compression bandages were applied to her thigh, had been able to stop the bleeding.

“I didn’t examine the wound, but from what I could estimate it occupied most of the back of her thigh … a massive wound.”

Dr Hadok described his role in the rescue as “pretty minor” and said he comforted Ms Barwick during the rescue.

“She was she was very frightened. She wasn’t out of control, she was very brave,” he said.

“She was asking me very rational questions and telling me about the awful pain that she was in. But she was quite sleepy because of the severe blood loss.

“Hopefully Justine will do very well, but she unfortunately has sustained a terrible injury and that will be the longest haul for her.”

‘There was blood everywhere’: witness

Rescuers and nearby holidaymakers who witnessed the woman’s ordeal say she is lucky to be alive.

Mark Yates was holidaying on his boat off Cid Harbour and said he was nearby when it happened.

“I just saw this yacht anchor about 60 metres off my boat, there appeared to be six people on board and they all seemed to be laughing and all that,” he said.

“Twenty minutes later there was this screaming and I thought ‘geez, they seem to be having fun’, and then the screaming kept continuing and I got up to have a look and I saw them dragging the poor woman out of the water.

PHOTO: Tasmanian tourist Justine Barwick has been confirmed as the woman attacked by a shark in Cid Harbour. (Supplied: Family Based Care )

“There was blood everywhere.”

Ms Barwick’s employer, Family Based Care Tasmania, said she was an avid snorkeler who made an annual trip to the Whitsundays.

“Justine is a fighter — a fit resilient woman who is an outstanding leader in the aged and disability care sectors. These intrinsic attributes will serve her well in her recovery,” the company said in a statement.

Mr Yates said the rescue operation took about an hour and a half.

“Two fellows dragged her straight up over the transom off the back of the boat and they must have laid her down in the cockpit so I couldn’t see anything happening at all.

“There was just frantic people moving around

“It would have been a risky operation.”

Mr Yates said boaties he had spoken to since the attack told him the area is known for sharks.

“This morning a fellow on a boat next door to me he came over and he told me he caught two tiger sharks in the last week and one of them bit his dinghy,” he said.

While he had previously gone swimming in Cid Harbour, Mr Yates said he won’t be again.

“I’m not game now. Beautiful as it is and the water’s nice but I’m just content to cool down in the breeze I think,” Mr Yates said.

Helicopter pilot recalls delicate rescue

PHOTO: A Tasmanian woman is stretchered into Mackay Hospital after a shark attack in the Whitsundays left her with horrific injuries. (ABC News)

The helicopter pilot who flew Ms Barwick to hospital described the “fortuitous” circumstances that may have saved her life.

Ms Barwick — who works for Family Based Care in north-west Burnie in northern Tasmania — was pulled out of the water and onto a nearby yacht, which happened to have a doctor on board.

She was then placed inside a dinghy and winched up to a helicopter.

RACQ CQ Rescue pilot Kevin Berry said it was a difficult situation.

PHOTO: RACQ CQ rescue crewman Ben McCauley (left) and pilot Kevin Berry. (ABC News: Sophie Meixner)

“[It was] very fortuitous that time, people and resources where there when we needed them,” he said.

“The rescue itself was tricky due to the tall mast on the hire yacht and that large number of boats in the area.

“So to hover over the boat to rescue directly from the boat would have blown the boat around.

“The simplest operation was what we did, putting her into the rubber duckie off the back of the boat and winching them from there.

“It took about 45 minutes.”

Mr Berry said another miraculous occurrence was the fact the rescue helicopter was low on fuel and had to divert to Proserpine.

“The fact the chopper did not have enough fuel to fly direct to Mackay ended up being a lucky break for the shark attack victim,” Mr Berry said.

PHOTO: RACQ CQ Rescue said it was a tricky rescue due to the tall mast on the hire yacht. (Sandi White Photography)

“We were 10 minutes short of fuel to come back to Mackay [so] we went to Proserpine to refuel.

“[It] would have been ideal to go to Hamilton Island but they did not have any fuel at the time.

“Blood was delivered to the team at the same time we landed.

“It gave the paramedic time to work on the casualty a little bit more stabilise her, as fluids were needed straight away.

“So it was maybe fortuitous landing at Proserpine, it got the fluids to her quicker than having to come back to Mackay.

“It all came together really quick.”

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A SUPER rare, two-headed snake was found in a suburban backyard and apparently both heads can harm you.

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A RARE two-headed snake has been discovered in the flowerbed of a backyard.

The rare find has been identified as a copperhead snake. In a Facebook post, herpetologist John D Kleopfer noted “Wild bicephalic snakes are exceptionally rare”.

A woman named Stephanie posted an initial photo of the reptile on Virginia Wildlife Management and Control’s Facebook page asking: “What are the odds to find a two headed snake???”

According to USA Today, the snake was found in Stephanie’s neighbour’s garden. From there, the snake was able to be evaluated by experts.

Snakes with two heads are rare and usually do not live too long. Picture: Virginia Wildlife Management and ControlSource:Facebook

Since sharing the post on Facebook, people around the world have had mixed opinions on the peculiar reptile. Picture: Virginia Wildlife Management and ControlSource:Facebook

Apparently one of the heads has a dominate oesophagus and the other has a more developed throat. Picture: Virginia Wildlife Management and ControlSource:Facebook

Mr Kleopfer explained that due to “too many challenges living day to day with two heads”, two headed snakes don’t live too long.

Explaining in a Facebook Post, Mr Kleopfer said the left head had the “dominate oesophagus and the right head has the more developed throat for eating”.

Copperheads grow about 18-36 inches long, while this bicephalic snake is only young and about 6 inches, Mr Kleopfer told USA Today.

Mr Kleopfer also said the snake isn’t a danger to anyone; vipers tend to attack insects and Copperheads aren’t known for being aggressive.

According Mr Kleopfer, the snake will possibly be donated to a zoological facility, “with a little luck and care”, he said.

National Geographic explained snakes like this one are not unlike Siamese twins.

“The point at which the embryo stops separating varies. Just as Siamese twins can be joined at the head, breast, or hip, so too can snakes be joined at varying places on their bodies.”

One person asked on the Virginia Wildlife Management and Control Facebook post, “which head makes the attack?” to which the control company replied: “Both”.

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A MYSTERIOUS great white shark lair has been discovered in what experts once thought was a “blank, barren” stretch of the Pacific Ocean.

The surprising discovery shocked scientists, who had no idea the area was home to sharks — and assumed the region couldn’t support their diets.

Each year, California’s great white shark community makes a mysterious pilgrimage to an area dubbed the “white shark cafe”.

Hundreds of the deadly sea creatures swim for months to spend their winter and spring in a far-flung area of the Pacific Ocean.

The area, which lies between Mexico’s Baja California and Hawaii, has proved a major mystery for scientists.

But now researchers have tracked the sharks, and visited the “middle-of-nowhere spot”, as first reported in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Marine scientists used acoustic and satellite tracking tags to follow sharks to their secret ocean hideaway. Picture: Salvador Jorgensen/Monterey Bar AquariumSource:Supplied

What particularly confused scientists was why sharks were swimming such huge distances.

It seemed especially odd, because it was assumed that the region was “lacking the kind of prey” that great whites prefer.

By a joint expedition by Stanford University and the Monterey Bay Aquarium found that the shark lair had plenty of grub to go around.

Researchers discovered a “vast community” of tiny light-sensitive creatures that prove very tempting for Pacific sharks.

According to experts, the area is teeming with squid and small fish that move around in a deepwater are of ocean known as “mid-water”.

This is the region just above the deepest areas of sea, where there is complete darkness.

Great white shark’s travel to this area to feast on tiny light-sensitive creatures. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:istock

I can’t see anyone doing a Yelp review of the great white shark cafe anytime soon. Picture: Getty ImagesSource:istock

Researchers now hope to investigate the area further.

“The story of the white shark tells you that this area is vitally important in ways we never knew about,” said Salvador Jorgensen, a research scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

“They are telling us this incredible story about the mid-water, and there is this whole secret life that we need to know about.”

He added: “What we’ve learned through the progression of our research is that this mid-water layer is extremely important for white sharks.”

The researchers are focusing on a large 160-mile-radius area that sits around 1200 nautical miles east of Hawaii.

Sharks are navigating wella way from the coast during winter months. Picture: The SunSource:Supplied

Scientists only have a very limited understanding of the region, due to its remote location.

Interest around the area grew when, 14 years ago, scientist Barbara Block, of Standford’s Marine Station, attached acoustic pinger tags to white sharks.

Ms Block found that local sharks were feeding in the “Red Triangle”, an area near Monterey Bay, between August and December.

But each December, the acoustic tags would track a huge movement out to sea, leaving experts baffled.

It turned out the sharks were swimming out to a patch of open ocean twice the size of England — which Ms Block dubbed the “white shark cafe”.

Each year hundreds of sharks make the journey to ‘shark cafe’. Picture: Getty imagesSource:Supplied

To investigate the matter, Ms Block attached acoustic tags to 36 local sharks, as well as satellite monitoring tags with locator beacons that were designed to pop off and float to the surface.

Then, researchers organised a month-long expedition on the research vessel Falkor, in a bid to track down the tags.

Researchers managed to secure info from 10 of that 22 tags that floated to the surface in what Ms Block described as a “white shark treasure hunt”.

“We now have a gold mine of data. We have doubled the current 20-year data set on white shark diving behaviours and environmental preferences in just three weeks,” Ms Block said.

She added that it would “help us better understand the persistence of this unique environment and why it attracts such large predators”.

Great white sharks swimming in Massachusetts. Picture: Wayne Davis/Atlantic White Shark ConservancySource:AP

It turned out that sharks were making unusually deep 3000-foot-deep dives, using warm currents to follow prey deep underwater.

Scientists believe, but can’t say for sure, that the sharks are snacking on small fish and squid.

The experts say that sharks of different genders were also behaving differently.

Male sharks would dive up and down through water in a V-shape, up to 140 times a day.

Females, meanwhile, would dive deep during the day, and shallow at light – creating further confusion for scientists.

“It’s the largest migration of animals on Earth — a vertical migration that’s timed with the light cycle,” Mr Jorgensen said.

“During the day they go just below where there is light and at night they come up nearer the surface to warmer, more productive waters under the cover of darkness.”

This story originally appeared in The Sun and has been republished here with permission.

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Taken from News.com.au 19th September 2018.

IT was an unusual colour. It was an eerie quivering mass.

Adam Dickinson told his children to steer clear of the massive blob they stumbled across while visiting a New Zealand beach earlier this week. But the family soon surrounded the creature, which appeared to be moving.

It was unlike anything Dickinson had ever seen before.

“My initial thought was don’t let my kids touch it as they went running up to have a look,” Dickinson, who lives in Stanmore Bay, recalled to Fox News.

The large creature washed up on Pakiri Beach, roughly 90km north of Auckland.

Dickinson’s children compared the pink creature to a “volcano.”

A New Zealand family stumbled upon a giant jellyfish while on a beach about 90km north of Auckland. Picture: Adam DickinsonSource:Supplied

“It was pretty incredible and really hard to describe,” Dickinson told Yahoo7. “It almost looked like a load of muscles contracting.”

It was clear the creature, which Dickinson later discovered was a lion’s mane jellyfish — the largest species of jellyfish in the world — wasn’t dead.

“It’s alive,” Dickinson’s son confirmed.

The family stared at the jellyfish, and sure enough, it continued to move.

“It was pretty amazing to see. Also, the other jellyfish we found on the beach, we turned them upside down to see if it would look similar to this one and none of them did,” Dickinson told the news station. “This one was definitely different. We have never seen anything like it. It was pretty cool.”

A lion’s mane jellyfish, also known as the “giant jellyfish,” can grow as large as a blue whale. Its tentacles can reach 190 feet long (57 metres) and it can have a bell diameter of up to 7 feet (1.8 metres), according to Oceana, an international conservation organisation.

The New Zealand family soon discovered the creature was a lion’s mane jellyfish, the largest species of jellyfish in existence. Picture: Adam DickinsonSource:Supplied

The majority of lion’s mane jellyfish live in the Arctic and Pacific Ocean, where waters tend to be cooler.

“Its ‘mane’ of long, hairlike tentacles hanging from the underside of its bell-shaped body is the inspiration behind the lion mane’s common name,” Oceana explains in a blog post. “The mouth is situated on the belly’s underside, surrounded by tentacles that are divided into eight clusters of up to 150 tentacles each.”

This type of jellyfish typically feeds on plankton, small fish and other tiny organisms. The lion’s mane jellyfish packs a powerful sting, typically using its toxic tentacles to paralyse its prey.

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