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TIFU by forgetting I live in Australia

Obligatory "this happened a week ago" + "posting from mobile"

I work in some interesting places and like the common nosleep trope, I have rules to keep alive. One of those rules - Don't pick up things if you don't know what they are.

A very good rule for not dying alone in an isolated environment.

Living in Australia, there's a lot of things that will end you. Snakes and spiders are the obvious ones, but I've almost never had any real problems with them. It's all the other things that aren't in pop culture that will get you. The subject of this story isn't even isolated to Australia.

Last week, while working on a very remote tropical island, I decided to go do some photography in tide pools late at night, about 2km from camp and phone reception. There was a bit of rough swell hitting the beach so I was seeing a few fish washed onto the rocks. With that in mind, I thought I saw a hermit crab wedged upside down in a crevice with another shell resting on the opening. I picked up the smaller shell, a baby conch I thought.

It was a cone snail. A living, breathing cone snail. Full of rage and violence at being picked up. I only realised when it started whipping it's barb around, brushing against my finger tips. Previously, the cone snails I'd seen in photos looked different, so I wasn't aware that this type of shell could be dangerous.

When asked about first aid, our medic responded only with "ventilator" and a chuckle.

TL;DR: I picked up a potentially lethal sea creature because I was blasé about the environment I was in and my access to medical rescue. And I forgot that being in Australia, everything wants to kill you.

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