Spines and sulky faces

Watch where you put your feet at the beach - a weever fish could be lurking

- Adele Brand

Like a grenade painted with a cartoon frown, the lesser weever fish reclines with quiet malice just below the low-water mark on sandy, muddy or light shingle shores.

Half-buried in seabed sediment, with a pretty golden body and a preposterously sour expression, it is of little interest to the crowds sunbathing and reading on the beach - until an unfortunate paddler makes the mistake of stepping on one. To tread on a weever fish is to taunt a tiger: inch-long dorsal spines stab the offender's foot, which swells rapidly like a balloon. Dunking the limb in extremely hot water helps break down the toxins, but the swelling can last for days. Distrust of the seashore might linger longer.