Tip in case you go crown-of-thorning!

At the moment I'm reading up about the Crown of thorns starfish. I realised that I knew hardly anything about them and yet I'm killing them. I figured that I should know my enemies!!! Well if you ever touch or step on a COT(crown of thorn) the best (and only that I know) is to allow the COT to suck out the poison by turning it the other way up and allowing the suction cup leg things to suck on the infected area. It sucks all the poison out with out leaving a scar!!! I'd have 3 other scars if it wasn't for some quick thinking form my cousin Amele. When I accidentally touched a COT (long story) I had 2 spines on my middle finger and one on my pointing finger, there were a few lose spines to, but we just pulled them off. We were out snorkeling and it was kinda choppy, someone needed the dingy so we were on our way in. Amele and I were piling the COTS on our (it's kinda like a gaff with a big wooden handle, and the hook at the end is bent at a right angle.) spear thing. I would get the COTS out and Amele would pile them on hers, then when hers becomes full I'd start to pile them on mine. I was trying to get out a big COT from some staghorn coral, I came up to get a breath and when I headed back down my fingers swept the COTS on Amele's... lets just call it a gaff! The pain was ecruciating, my fingers were hot and I could feel the poison. Amele immediately told me that I had to let the COT suck out the poison... well I thought she was nuts, but I knew she was right. So we were out at the edge of the reef in slightly choppy seas, with a strong current. Amele was holding my hand against the underbelly of a COT (if you've ever seen the underbelly of a starfish, it's like that but the sticky, leg things are 10 times bigger!!!!!). The pain in my fingers immediately eased up, after that we headed into shore. There was one spine that slid down the side of my finger that I hadn't known about, I could feel it but not see the spine. Anyway to make a long story short, the blue poison that the COT sucked out were fine, they healed up with out a trace. But as for the spine, my middle finger now has a dint in the side from where the spine was. I eventually lanced it my self (because I wasn't convinced that there was no spine in it) and pulled out the 2cm end of a COT spine. Well better go!