Ha! they are pulling your leg, sure there are things in the sea you should avoid but the most dangerous are not what swim in it!! stop worring, I swim most days (in summer) in the sea and never in many years of swimming off the Pafos area beaches has ever had a go at me...look out for those bloody jet boats though, and the idiots who use them.

Sea Centipedes they live in Aus

[urlhttp://www.museum.vic.gov.au/crust/centiped.html]

debbie_lotus,

I think you might be referring to Fireworms which are common in the Med. They're quite nasty if you come in to contact with them. You'll normally find them crawling around rocky outcrops so try and avoid direct contact with them if possible, they aren't called fireworms for nothing! This is what they look like (photo taken in Crete):



This is a link to one of my diving videos. This one was filmed in Icmeler, Turkey last year. 6mins 50 secs in to the video, I have a short shot of a Fireworm.



Darren

I have swam in the Cyprus seas as a child with my parents at Famagusta, swimming out to camel rock as we called it, and also playing about on the reef off the Famagusta beach, and as an adult various other locations, But have never myself or heard of anybody treading on a Fireworm, Sea Urchins yes, as they are in abundance on the rocks and are very painful if trodden on
But you can buy a pair of swimming slippers which will protect your feet on the rocks (maybe not against the urchins if trodden on) and against accidental treading on a Fireworm, so fear not.