Thursday, June 28, 2007

When Stingrays Attack

A stingray stabbed another man in the chest, it seems.

Steve Irwin died of a very similar wound not long ago, as any of us who watch media know, and it happened again. The ray had jumped into this man's boat (pretty weird behavior for this particular species of ray), and the 81-year-old man was trying to help it back into the water when it nailed him. He lost his spleen to the incident, but the stinger never made it to his heart.

The title of this post is a joke of course, stingrays don't attack anything offensively but little critters in the sand for food. Just a trip that this exact wound happened yet again -- even if it was under totally different circumstances.

Steve Irwin was more than likely fucking with the animal when it stabbed him. Stingrays will attack defensively. I don't hold the reverence for him that so many other people seem to (when you see the eulogies it's kinda crazy idol worship). I saw a guy who messed with animals for a living, whatever. In his case he was probably jacking the thing around and it stung him out of defensive reflex. It definitely wasn't going after him.

In any case, freaky to have two chest wounds to or near to the heart in such quick succession. Only 17 deaths have been reported ever due to stingrays at this point, most folks experience pain and possibly infection and then recover under normal medical attention.

Although this story isn't breaking news, it was freaky enough that I wanted to share. I've seen spotted rays before, and they're gorgeous to watch under water.

Enjoy your terrestrial existence,

Bp

1 comment:

Kate said...

about the only part of Sea World that I enjoyed when I visited was the rays. They'd all had their stingers removed, but we were allowed to pet them and put little bits of fish in our hands for them to eat. They feel sandpaper on top, but perfectly smooth on the underside