stingrays are getting NASTY

[G.]

first the croc hunter, now this.:eek:


Spotted Eagle Ray Jumps In Boat, Stabs Man In Chest

http://www.wftv.com/news/10110202/detail.html

LIGHTHOUSE POINT, Fla. -- A man was in critical condition Thursday morning, a day after a spotted eagle ray jumped onto his boat and stabbed him in the chest, leaving a foot-long barb stuck in him, authorities said.

James Bertakis, 81, of Lighthouse Point, was boating with his grown granddaughter and her friend Wednesday afternoon when the rare attack occurred. The women were able to steer the boat back to Bertakis' home where they called authorities.

"It was a freak accident," said Lighthouse Point acting fire Chief David Donzella. "It's very odd that the thing jumped out of the water and stung him. We still can't believe it."

Bertakis was conscious when paramedics arrived. Surgeons were able to remove some of the barb, but were not able to locate the rest and feared it may have migrated. Bertakis suffered a closed chest wound, collapsed lung and may have to undergo open-heart surgery, rescue officials said.

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[dando]

I remember as a young un seeing a stringray being caught by some guys fishing from the beach in Hilton Head. :eek:

-Kevin

[racer2c]

I'm willing to bet that Hollywood is falling over all themselves trying to produce a Jaws'esque monster stingray thriller. Summer '07.

[dando]

I'm willing to bet that Hollywood is falling over all themselves trying to produce a Jaws'esque monster stingray thriller. Summer '07.

I've already got a title in mind: Stingrays on a boat. :D :saywhat:

-Kevin

[TravelGal]

There are stingrays in most places in the world. They are supposed to be gentle. I've swum by them many times.

I hate to say it but this is really going to put a scare into a lot of tourists. It certainly gives me pause.

[datachicane]

My younger brother and I are fairly competitive.
Years ago, our folks lived on a sailboat in the Sea of Cortez.
While we were visiting at Bahía Concepción with some friends, My brother borrowed a sailboard and decided to zip around the shallows. The water there's about a meter deep, and the bottom is a fairly uninterrupted blanket of stingrays. Not to be outdone, I came up with the brilliant idea of going out at dusk in a Zodiac full of Corona and a speargun with the idea of bringing back a nice stingray dinner.

I learned a number of things that evening.

1. The parallax effect makes it difficult to achieve an accurate aim with a speargun unless your face is in the water. The trick is to wear a mask and snorkel, wedge your legs under a thwart, and lower your upper body into the water.

2. When fired from a 48" speargun at point-blank range, even a freshly-sharpened spearpoint will bounce off the back of a stingray.

3. Stingrays, while docile, become somewhat narrow-minded while having spears bounced off of their backs.

4. Corona is good.

5. A disturbed stingray will swim straight up.

6. A disturbed stingray can swim pretty fast.

7. The underside of the thwarts in a Zodiac inflatable boat are remarkably slippery when wet.

8. A Zodiac inflatable boat is full of air.

9. Spears are pointy.

10. Certain portions of stingray anatomy are pointy.

11. Even a good friend, when he has enough Corona in him, will find it irresistably hilarious to tickle the backs of your knees while you're suspended by your feet over a fast-moving, narrow-minded, venomous animal.

12. I am a seriously lucky guy.

[racer2c]

My younger brother and I are fairly competitive.
Years ago, our folks lived on a sailboat in the Sea of Cortez.
While we were visiting at Bahía Concepción with some friends, My brother borrowed a sailboard and decided to zip around the shallows. The water there's about a meter deep, and the bottom is a fairly uninterrupted blanket of stingrays. Not to be outdone, I came up with the brilliant idea of going out at dusk in a Zodiac full of Corona and a speargun with the idea of bringing back a nice stingray dinner.

I learned a number of things that evening.

1. The parallax effect makes it difficult to achieve an accurate aim with a speargun unless your face is in the water. The trick is to wear a mask and snorkel, wedge your legs under a thwart, and lower your upper body into the water.

2. When fired from a 48" speargun at point-blank range, even a freshly-sharpened spearpoint will bounce off the back of a stingray.

3. Stingrays, while docile, become somewhat narrow-minded while having spears bounced off of their backs.

4. Corona is good.

5. A disturbed stingray will swim straight up.

6. A disturbed stingray can swim pretty fast.

7. The underside of the thwarts in a Zodiac inflatable boat are remarkably slippery when wet.

8. A Zodiac inflatable boat is full of air.

9. Spears are pointy.

10. Certain portions of stingray anatomy are pointy.

11. Even a good friend, when he has enough Corona in him, will find it irresistably hilarious to tickle the backs of your knees while you're suspended by your feet over a fast-moving, narrow-minded, venomous animal.

12. I am a seriously lucky guy.

Send that to Hollywood! Funny stuff.

I swam with hundreds of large stingrays at stingray city in the Grand Caymens. No one told us they could stab us in the heart. Doh!

[Cam]

11. Even a good friend, when he has enough Corona in him, will find it irresistably hilarious to tickle the backs of your knees while you're suspended by your feet over a fast-moving, narrow-minded, venomous animal.


As a kid I was fishing on a beach and standing in about ankle deep water at the time. There were a bunch of stingrays sedately swimming around right in front of me. I would put the tip of my fishing rod in the water and tap them on the back as they swam past, just to watch the scoot off in a hurry. It was rather fun. Some smart arse said to me that I better watch it in case they came back to get me.

Sure enough said smart arse snuck up behind me and pinched my achilles. It was not funny!

/Too young at the time for Corona to be involved.

[Gangrel]

Gangrel the SCUBA diver here.....

I was quite surprised to see this story today, especially with it being a Spotted Eagle Ray. Stingrays are a very different animal from Eagle Rays and Mantas. CNN, of course, can't get that fact straight. But I digress. :rolleyes:

That said, I still have to say that I had no idea (and still have not been able to verify) that Eagle Rays even had barbs in their tails. My first reaction when I saw this story was to cry BS. But, it appears it is very likely true, and I am still working to verify that Spotted Eagles have barbs.

If nothing else, I would say that we very seldom hear of Spotted Eagle barb injuries because, unlike stingrays, who spend most of their time sitting on the bottom practicing not being seen, Mantas and Eagles swim freely in the open water, away from the bottom. The vast majority of stingray injuries happen as a result of stepping on top of said stingray while walking on the beach. If you manage to step on top of a Manta or a Spotted Eagle Ray (or a Cownose Ray, for that matter), you are one VERY talented individual!

I am still waiting to wake up tomorrow morning and read the story about how this whole thing was a hoax by an old fisherman who didn't want to admit that he slipped on the deck of his boat and impaled himself with a screwdriver. If the story is true, I have an easier time believing that the ray didn't exactly jump into his boat....more like he was helped there with some monofilament line and a stainless steel hook. If that is true, I can hardly blame the ray for using his defense mechanisms. We shall see....

[racer2c]

If the story is true, I have an easier time believing that the ray didn't exactly jump into his boat....more like he was helped there with some monofilament line and a stainless steel hook.


Exactly.:thumbup:

[Ankf00]

the story says "stinger removed," not "barb removed."

are the stingers detachable? other than via the chop chop method anyway...

[datachicane]

Yeah, they break off pretty easily, and the ray grows a new one. You'll find them on the beach occasionally. Make great letter openers. Useful for reenacting Maya sacrificial blood rituals, too, if you're into that sort of thing. <yecch!>

[cameraman]

Gangrel the SCUBA diver here.....

That said, I still have to say that I had no idea (and still have not been able to verify) that Eagle Rays even had barbs in their tails.

Cameraman the biologist, here.
The pelvic fins are narrowly rounded and the dorsal fin is small with its origin just posterior to the pelvic fin insertion point. There is no caudal fin on the spotted eagle ray. The tail is very long and whip-like, reaching lengths of 2.5-3x the width of the disc when undamaged. The stinging spines, originating just behind the dorsal fin, are short and number from 2-6. They have a barbed tip and recurved lateral teeth along with a forked root. These venomous spines can deliver a nasty sting when used in defense against potential threats.

[Ankf00]

I read that same anatomy page :D

[cameraman]

Google is a wonderful thing.:D

[cameraman]

I found an account from 1910 about the Spotted Eagle Ray which at the time was called the Spotted Sting Ray. Given what the guy wrote it is quite possible that the ray jumped in the boat on its own. It is an interesting read if rays are of interest to you...


Aëtobatus narinari
(SPOTTED STING-RAY; LADY-RAY.)
To the above names and many others by which this ray is called might be added most appropriately the name of “Sea-hog”; for after the manner of that quadruped this ray spends most of its time in plowing up the bottom of the sea with its tough hog-like snout in search of clams and other shell. fish. Although it feeds in very shallow water at high tide, I have found it very difficult to harpoon owing to the fact that it keeps the water thick and clouded with sand by its continual rooting, making it almost impossible to locate its form with sufficient accuracy to strike true with the harpoon; and at the too near approach of the boat it suddenly darts away with great speed.

For many years I have given much time to the study of these rays and am thoroughly convinced that the shellfish consumed by the entire human race are as nothing to the countless thousands of bushels consumed each year by this ray. I have known of beds, containing many bushels of planted clams, being attacked by schools of these rays and every clam in them destroyed in less than a week; and on several occasions I have had a pile containing a half bushel or more entirely destroyed during a single tide by one or more of these rays. Clams appear to be almost, if not entirely, the only food of the ray. I have opened more than fifty specimens and carefully studied the contents of the stomach and have never found that they contain any other food.

The mouth of this ray is especially interesting in that the upper jaw holds a quadrangular plate of stone-like hardness made up of a succession of thin plates on edge, and the lower jaw holds a long tongue-like plate of similar structure. Further, the thin plates at the back are more or less partly formed and soft, and, as the edge of the front thin plate becomes dull or broken it becomes loose and drops off, giving a new thin plate in front with knife-like edge; and the whole structure is forced forward and another plate becomes hard and stone-like. In fact it becomes so hard as to withstand a heavy blow from a hammer and to give out a sharp sound as if a very hard stone were struck. No ordinary blow of a hammer will fracture one of these plates.

The muscular development of these jaws is truly wonderful. I have found in these rays clams which with their shells on must have weighed more than three pounds and to crack which a pressure of perhaps a thousand pounds would be required. And I have found in the stomach of these rays on a number of occasions more than half a gallon of freshly opened clams, with the flesh of each clam less broken than the most expert human clam opener could possibly have turned out; and the writer has often spread out these clams on a clean board and carefully examined them and found that they were absolutely free from any pieces of broken shell.

Aëtobatus narinari is a dweller in the warm seas, yet every summer it comes as far north as Cape Lookout, N. C., in great numbers, and it is occasionally reported on the Virginia coast but considered very rare there. In going from one good feeding ground to another they at times move in large schools. On or about July 20, 1909, the writer while on his yacht about ten miles south of Cape Lookout noticed a large school containing many hundreds of them on one of these migrations, passing swiftly but silently along under the yacht about three feet under water going south in regular, close marching military formation. Furthermore there is absolutely reliable information that others have seen these migrations on a number of occasions just as this one was seen.

During 1909 they were remarkably plentiful at Cape Lookout. I captured more than fifty specimens and saw a great many more, in addition to the above mentioned school. During July, 1910, the writer probably saw as many as forty or fifty specimens but killed only eight; the largest of which was 5 ft. 9 ins, wide; total length including tail 8 ft. 9 ins.; length of tail 5 ft. 9 ins.; length of body 3 ft.; weight 132 lbs. This was a female without eggs or embryos. My largest specimen of this ray was captured at Cape Lookout in July, 1904; its weight was estimated by myself and others who assisted in handling it to be between five and six hundred pounds. Unfortunately I made no measurements of this specimen. It was, however, by far the largest I have ever seen.

For a number of years, members of my crew and other deep sea fishermen have been telling me that in giving birth to its young the female ray leaps high in the air as each of its young is born; but as this leaping seemed so unnecessary I had questioned their tales. However, on about the 15th of July, 1910, I was suddenly called on deck by two of my crew and then saw a large female Aëtobatus narinari leaping high in the air and falling back into the water within twenty yards of the yacht. After she had thus leaped several times, I distinctly saw a young one about six or eight inches wide thrown from her body; and, after she had leaped again several times without result, another young one was born; and the men told me that two had been born before I had come on deck.

The Aëtobatus narinari carries near the base of its tail from two to four barbed spines. The largest, which is the one used in stinging, is the one farthest from the body. From my personal observations I know that, if the tip of this sting becomes broken, the sting soon gets loose and drops out and the one in front grows larger and takes its place; and where this change is taking place another small, half-soft, sting is forming under the skin behind the dorsal fin to take its place later on should the two or three behind become injured or damaged and have to be cast off.

The barbed spine of this ray is covered with a mucous slime containing a violent poison and a person stung by the Aëtobatus narinari suffers the most horrible torture for many days; and there are many authenticated cases in which permanent disability, loss of leg or arm, or even death has resulted. I can write most feelingly on this subject as in my work of collecting and making studies of rare fish, I have been for years more or less exposed to this danger and have been experimenting and trying to find the proper treatment in such an emergency. On the morning of July 12, 1910, while handling a large specimen of Aëtobatus narinari which had been just caught, it suddenly threw its body against me and drove its poisoned sting into my leg above the knee for more than two inches, striking the bone, and producing instantly a pain more horrible than I had thought possible that man could suffer. The only sensation comparable to it, which I have ever experienced, is that produced by coming in contact with the long filaments of the Portuguese Man-of-War. I braced myself against the body of the creature and tore its barbed spine from my flesh. In less than five minutes I had attached a long needle to a hypodermic syringe, inserted the needle to the bone in the wound and injected a syringe of full strength antiseptic solution called Formolid. This was repeated until the wound had been thoroughly cleared of the poisonous slime carried in by the spine. The result was magical, the pain did not subside; it stopped instantly; and the wound had entirely healed in less than 24 hours.

[dando]

I found an account from 1910 about the Spotted Eagle Ray which at the time was called the Spotted Sting Ray. Given what the guy wrote it is quite possible that the ray jumped in the boat on its own. It is an interesting read if rays are of interest to you...

Thx Dr. Dolittle. ;) :p

-Kevin

[Gangrel]

Cameraman the biologist, here.

Consider it verified. :D

Still, far rarer to hear of anyone stung by an Eagle Ray or Manta Ray than by other species of rays....

I still think this involved monofilament line and a stainless steel hook...

[cameraman]

Consider it verified. :D

Still, far rarer to hear of anyone stung by an Eagle Ray or Manta Ray than by other species of rays....

I still think this involved monofilament line and a stainless steel hook...

Quite likely but he would have had to snag it. You have to wonder what they were doing.

[Gangrel]

Could just be unfortunate timing. If they were hanging a line in the current or trolling, the Spotted Eagle could conceivably have swam through the line until he snagged. Contrary to what many online references say about Spotted Eagles hanging in shallows going through the sand for shellfish, most of the diving encounters that I have had or heard about with them happened with them swimming in open water around 50-60 ft. My first encounter happened on a wall at 75 ft, and he buzzed us repeatedly as we ascended the wall to 40.

If it was deliberate, it would be quite a feat. Then again, if it was deliberate, not really sure what they were planning on doing with a Spotted Eagle Ray. Not exactly a commercially viable fish. Haven't really heard of too many people going after them as trophies, either....

Perhaps this was just a really unfortunate set of circumstances. Spotted Eagle is jumping and diving along, enjoying his day as a Spotted Eagle, when suddenly, WHAMO! He lands in a boat with an old guy and his adult daughter. W-T-F??? So he starts thrashing around trying to defend himself from these weird monsters in this foreign world, and trying to get himself wet again... Whoops! Looks like I stuck that old guy with my barb in the process...

Very sad to see an old man get hurt. Very sad to see a Spotted Eagle Ray die. I am terrified, however, of what the press is inevitably going to try to turn this into. Gotta' love living in a society where the general population has the intelect of a carton of yogurt and the attention span of a ferret on meth. <sigh>

[Mr. Toad]

"Stand by for action! We are about to launch Stingray! Anything can happen in the next half-hour!"
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~delbeek/stingray.jpg