The 17-year-old died in Townsville Hospital on Wednesday after being stung by the jellyish while swimming off the tip of the Cape York Peninsula on February 22.

He had been swimming at at Patterson Point, near the village of Bamaga, when he was strung by the Chironex fleckeri jellyfish, the world's most venomous animal.

The boy was then airlifted by the Royal Flying Doctor's Service to Townsville Hospital's intensive care unit.

The teen died on Wednesday and police are preparing a report for the coroner.

There have been at least 70 deaths caused by box jellyfish in Australian waters since records began in the 1880s and numerous more overseas.

The boy's death is the first reported Chironex fleckeri fatality in 14 years.

A six-year-old boy died after being stung while swimming near a remote Indigenous community in the Northern Territory in 2007.

One year earlier a girl also died after being stung at Bamaga, near where the teenage boy was stung.

Australian Associated Press