Accidently came in contact with fire coral snorkling in shallow water in Aruba. The captain and crew had only one treatment available, rum punch. Applied internally. Keep applying until you don't care that it feels like you've got the worse grease burn you can imagine. Didn't cure the pain but after enough "medicine" I didn't care.

Bassman

I've heard that ammonia counteracts the poison in jellyfish. Not sure about sea urchins or fire coral. As you probably won't be bringing ammonia, an alternative treatment (are you ready for this???) is to urinate on it. I first heard about this years ago from a local in Bermuda where the Portugese Man O'War sometimes wash up on the beaches. You can be walking along and step on the tentacles and get stung even if the tentacles have broken off of the main body. They are extremely painful and can send you to the hospital if stung enough. The 'treatment' was said to mitigate the pain a bit, not completely eliminate it.

Hope that helps.

WW

I'll stick with Adolfs Meat Tenderizer for all stings, not sure about fire coral, not too sure about urine either. But hey, when in the islands do as the islands.

Sleeper 18 has a good idea.

What he is talking about is MSG (mono sodium glutimate). The stuff that gives you toxic poisoning when added to food. Make a paste of it and keep applying the wet paste to the injured area.

We first discovered this in Hawaii many years ago, when my wife brushed into a portuguise man o war. A local said use MSG. It worked ..The only msg we could find had garlic flavor added, so she smelled great too.

We use sudsy amonia mixed in the warmest water that you can stand. Florida Beach restaurants & businesses keep buckets, water & sudsy amonia at-the-ready during stingray mating season. However, prevention is the best policy - wear a 'skin' and gloves!

First - stay in the water. I KNOW this sounds silly, but from my long gone Marine Biology class, the water the critter lives in is best to keep it from hurting so much. Staying in the water helps the pain go away faster - same with anemone spines. As a diver, I encounter both on a regular basis ...not actually getting into Fire Coral, but seeing it =)...and the other divers who don't pay attention to where they're going getting into it.

Second - DUCT TAPE! Applied over the area after you're out of the water gets the fine stingers out of the skin. THEN use Windex - it's got enough ammonia in it to mitigate the sting - rather "base" versus "alkaline". Basic chemistry 🙂

As far as wearing gloves, as rojako mentioned - from what I see wearing gloves just encourages people to touch the coral in the mistanek belief that a gloved hand will do no damage. The coral will still die gloved or not. Skins, however - can help.

My suggestion - don't get close enough to touch the fire coral. It is peach/dull orange to dark orange and can cover many different types of coral.

The best way to avoid this situation is to not put yourself into a position where you might come in contact with any coral. You can prohibit years of growth by coming in contact with it. So try and avoid it at all costs. As far as wearing gloves, it is against the law to dive with gloves in the USVI's. I would assume that goes for snorkeling as well but am not positive.

I'm not a diver so just out of curiosity I have to ask why is it against the law to wear gloves while diving (or snorkeling?)?

Is it to curtail aggressive touching of marine life and coral?

Ted

" it is against the law to dive with gloves in the USVI's"

Huh???

lol, funny funny, we just got back, didn't get into the coral, or sea urchins, i did come home with lots of noseeum bites though. they love me. i guess i'm really sweet. will post a report soon. scooby