Published on Aug 6, 2017 
 
 Courtesy: Jarrod Kanizay 
 
 
 
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 See and search Storyful Licensed Videos here: https://licensed.storyful.com/videos?... ||||| Scientists at Museums Victoria have identified sea-creatures, captured by the father of the boy attacked on Brighton Beach, as lysianassid amphipods, a type of scavenging crustacean. 
 
 Marine biologist Genefor Walker-Smith, who examined a sample, collected by the family, under the microscope, said the creatures are naturally-occurring scavengers, which commonly bite but do not usually cause the kind of injuries seen in the boy. 
 
 “It was just unlucky. It’s possible he disturbed a feeding group but they are generally not out there waiting to attack like piranhas,” she said. 
 
 Walker-Smith said it was possible the amphipods contained an anti-coagulant like leeches, which accounted for the inability to stem the flowing blood and that the very cold water may be the reason the boy did not feel the bites. 
 
 The amphipods have no venomous properties and will not cause lasting damage. 
 
 Walker-Smith emphasised amphipods were a valuable part of the marine environment. “If we didn’t have them we would have a sea filled with dead and decaying fish.” 
 
 Amphipods are sometimes referred to as “sea fleas”. Media reports have described the attackers as “sea lice” but that term is usually used to refer to isopods, a different group of crustaceans. ||||| Photo 
 
 SYDNEY, Australia — Australians tend to roll their eyes when the world obsesses about this country’s dangerous animal kingdom, including its deadly snakes (the deadliest in the world), its tiny and toxic redback spiders, and of course the jellyfish that cause heart attacks. 
 
 But on Monday, even the most jaded Aussies found themselves gawking over and swearing about the mysterious creatures that chewed up a Melbourne teenager’s legs. 
 
 Graphic photos of his ankles spread across social media. 
 
 All that the teenager, Sam Kanizay, 16, said he had wanted to do was soak his sore legs at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton after a football match. But when he stepped out of the water a half-hour later, his ankles were pouring blood. 
 
 Doctors and scientists said they were baffled by the severity of the injury. 
 
 The leading theory seemed to be that Sam had inadvertently become lunch for hungry sea lice, also known as marine isopods, a group of crustaceans that are the marine versions of slaters and pill bugs that people might be familiar with from their gardens. Sea lice are usually parasites of fish. When they bite humans, they usually just leave tiny pinpricks that can look like a rash. 
 
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 Sam’s father, Jarrod Kanizay, decided to investigate by dropping a hunk of raw steak in the water where his son was attacked. He posted a video of the result: hundreds of tiny sea creatures feasting on the meat. 
 
 But not everyone is convinced that the true culprit has been caught. 
 
 A University of New South Wales associate professor, Alistair Poore, said the animals in the video were not sea lice, but another group of small scavengers called amphipods, which are not known to bite humans. ||||| MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A teenager who went for a swim at a Melbourne beach and emerged with his feet covered in blood has stumped marine experts. 
 
 Sam Kanizay's legs felt sore after playing a game of football on Saturday, so he decided to soak them at the beach. About 30 minutes later, the 16-year-old walked out of the water with his feet and ankles covered in what looked like hundreds of little pin holes that were bleeding profusely. Upon returning home, his parents promptly took him to the hospital. 
 
 Kanizay's father, Jarrod, said hospital staff had no idea what kind of creature could have caused the injuries. So Jarrod went back to the beach the following night with a pool net full of meat and captured the animals he believes could have been responsible. He took a video of dozens of the tiny bug-like creatures chomping on the chunks of meat. 
 
 "What is really clear is these little things really love meat," he said. 
 
 Jeff Weir, executive director of the Dolphin Research Institute, believes the teen may have been attacked by crustaceans called amphipods, which usually eat decomposing plant and animal scraps. 
 
 But Thomas Cribb, a parasite expert from the University of Queensland, said it would be very unusual for amphipods to cause such extensive bleeding. 
 
 "It's not a parasite I've ever come across," he said. 
 
 Meanwhile, marine expert Michael Brown believes the small bugs eating the meat in the video could be jellyfish larvae. 
 
 "I've never seen anything like this," he told Channel Seven's Sunrise program. 
 
 Sam was still hospitalized on Monday, but had been taken off antibiotics.
– If Jaws left you fearful of going into the water, this story about a much, much smaller predator may only reinforce your fright. The Australian Associated Press reports on the case of Sam Kanizay, a Melbourne 16-year-old who spent about a half-hour soaking his legs, sore from sports, at Dendy Street Beach in Brighton on Saturday. He emerged with his legs dripping in blood. "As soon as we wiped [his legs] down, they kept bleeding," Sam's father, Jarrod Kanizay, tells the AAP. (Very graphic photo here.) "They ate through Sam’s skin and made it bleed profusely." And they left doctors stumped. But there have been theories aplenty, per the New York Times and the AP: Some were sure that sea lice, a group of crustaceans known as isopods, were responsible. The head of the Dolphin Research Institute points the finger at another group of crustaceans called amphipods; another marine expert speculates it was jellyfish larvae. As for Thomas Cribb, a parasite expert from the University of Queensland, "it's not a parasite I've ever come across." In a quest to find the answer, Jarrod Kanizay headed for the beach Sunday night with a wetsuit, a pool net, and pieces of steak to use as bait, and captured "thousands of little mite-type creatures." He has shared an unappetizing video of them noshing on the meat. A marine biologist with Museums Victoria analyzed a sample taken by Kanizay and says they're lysianassid amphipods, or sea fleas. He speculates they have a leech-like anti-coagulant that kept the blood flowing from Sam's legs, and said the teen may not have felt the bites because of the chill of the winter water. (Read another story about odd sea creatures.)