Back to Medical FAQ ListMooring/Anchor lines causing itching and rash
>While performing our safety stop my wife and I were holding onto a mooring line. We were not wearing gloves. Within a few minutes we both had itchy palms and they became red and swollen too. Has DAN ever heard of this and what do we do?
>More and more divers have reported stinging injuries as a result of grasping mooring lines with ungloved hands. Rope fibers themselves can cause injury as well. From the reports DAN receives, however, most mooring line injuries appear consistent with a marine life envenomation.
>Colonies of organisms eventually inhabit all man-made objects in the ocean, including
>mooring lines. It is not known with certainty exactly what organism inhabits the lines. Many authorities maintain that the most likely suspect is a member of the hydroid family, a class of coelenterates that also includes jellyfish. Divers should treat these injuries the same way jellyfish/fire coral injuries would be treated.