Some animals in the ocean are more dangerous than others. Some of them either bite, are giant, can sting, have venomous spines or sharp spines, and some have knifelike teeth or a grip that they maintain until death.
Some animals that are intimidating for their size or have painful bites are:
• The giant grouper or sea bass can be 12 feet long and weighs 500 pounds.
• The giant manta can be 20 feet long and weigh 3500 pounds.
• You could get caught between the giant clams valves.
• We are all familiar with the sharp teeth of a shark and their attacks.
• The giant barracuda is 6-8 feet long and has enormous knifelike teeth.
• The killer whale will attack anything that swims.
• Sea lions will nip divers when they are breeding
• The giant moray eels have teeth and can bite.
Some animals can inflict painful stings, have sharp edges or fire nematocysts (little poisonous harpoon-like structures on tentacles in their skin) such as we find in Coelenterates:
• Hydroids like the Portuguese man of War, jellyfish and sea anemones make terrible stings
• Corals and oysters have knife sharp edges
• In the class of mollusks there are gastropods that sting and puncture such as the stinging snails and slugs or other univalve mollusks like the cone that punctures when
it stings.
• Other mollusks that are cephalopods can sting. The giant octopus, can be 25 feet long and has a venomous bite. Others like the squid, nautilus, and cuttlefish can also sting.
• Some annelids or sea worms can bite or sting like the bristle worm.
• Sea urchins (Echinoderms) can sting. This spiny animal has large needle sharp spines that can break off in wounds and some spines are venomous.
Venomous Marine Vertebrates:
• The spiny dogfish shark is the most abundant shark and has a dorsal fin that is mildly poisonous.
• Stingrays can give a venomous tail sting.
• The weaver fish has cheek spines and the 1st dorsal fins and gills are poisonous.
• The scorpion fish has needle sharp fins that sting.
• The surgeonfish had poisonous spines.
• The toadfish may bite and it has hollow spines with glands that inject venom.
• The elephant fish and the rat fish have dorsal fins that sting.
• The catfish is a ray finned fish and has barbed cats whiskers and sharp spines and swim in corkscrew turns inflicting a mildly toxic wound.