LIVES are at risk because the State Government refuses to fund research into potentially deadly irukandji jellyfish, Australia's leading marine stinger expert has warned.

Frustrated scientist Jamie Seymour said a teenager had ended up in Cairns Base Hospital on Thursday, after being stung by an irukandji at nearby Green Island, because there was no early detection system for the tiny irukandji jellyfish.

Launching a blistering attack on the State Government, Dr Seymour told The Weekend Post: "Two people have died in the last six years from irukandji stings in North Queensland.

"Yet we still know next to nothing about them, have no antivenene and no early warning system despite having the perfect spot at Double Island, which is a breeding place for them."

Dr Seymour lashed out at
the State Government for creating a "toothless tiger" when
it established the Marine Stinger Advisory Committee last September.

"It has never been funded," Dr Seymour said.

"We’ve had the dollars for box jellyfish.

"But with irukandji, which under certain circumstances can get inside the (swimming) nets, we’ve had very little.

"It’s a reactive system –when someone gets stung we shut the beach."

He said money was thrown at irukandji research after the deaths of an American tourist at Hamilton Island and a compatriot at Opal Reef off Port Douglas, but not enough to gain a detailed understanding of the species which is believed to sporadically reach Far Northern beaches in stinger season.

An irukandji jellyfish breeding ground behind Double Island, off Palm Cove north of Cairns, could be an early detection area if more was known about the species, Dr Seymour said.

The office of the Minister for Sustainability, Climate Change and Innovation, Andrew McNamara, did not respond to calls from The Weekend Post yesterday.

Cairns’s Marine Stinger Advisory Committee chairman Brad McCulloch agreed not a great deal was known about irukandjis.

But he said his group was set up to compile what was known for State Government, not to act as a funding distribution body.

Tourism industry figures yesterday backed calls for the State Government to allocate money to irukandji research.

Marketing expert Ron Livingston said the search for an antivenene was essential in protecting locals and tourists.

"Research that leads to an antivenene is of vital importance," he said.

Mr Livingston said any irukandji stings had the potential to harm the tourism industry.

"Bad publicity travels fast," he said.

Another tourism industry leader, who asked not to be named, agreed that more money was urgently needed to fund research.

"The more knowlege we have the more proactive we can be in protecting tourists," he said.

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