# Ray’s sting is rarely fatal



## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

Stingrays are strange-looking but normally shy creatures whose defenses include poisonous, serrated barbs in their tails. 
At least 35 species of sting-rays swim in the waters of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where TV personality Steve Irwin died yesterday when he was stabbed in the heart by a ray’s barb. 
Experts said the triangularshaped rays are usually unobtrusive, gliding through the water, rummaging on the sea bottom for food or burrowing into the sand. But when frightened, they deploy spines up to 10 inches long with bread-knife serrations. 
"If it’s spooked by someone stepping on it or swimming too closely over it, frightening it, the tail raises involuntarily," said Victoria Brims, a marine-life expert at OceanWorld, an aquarium in Sydney, Australia. 
The spines emit toxins that can kill many small creatures and that cause excruciating pain in humans. Few people die from the poison, but the spines can badly tear flesh. 
Simon Pierce, of Queensland University’s School of Biological Sciences, estimated there had been about 30 stingray deaths worldwide in recent years. Still, "It’s not easy to get spined by a stingray, and to be killed by one is very rare," said Shaun Collin, a University of Queensland marine neuroscientist. 

http://www.dispatch.com/features-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/09/05/20060905-B2-07.html


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

Would only take one shot to the chest i imagine and ur a goner....worse then getting shot once in the chest it is


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Unfortunately not as unheard of as you might think. Someone on another forum (aquaticpredators.com) posted this:



> From the University of Melbourne Australian Venom Research Unit:
> 
> Fatalities from penetrating chest or abdominal wounds by stingray barbs have been recorded.





> From the Reefquest Center for Shark Resaerch:
> 
> World-wide, several stingray-related fatalities are recorded every year - as sometimes occurs when a diver swims too close over a partially buried ray and is stung in the neck or chest.





> From Clinical Aspects of Envenomation by Marine Animals (Fenner, Williamson and Burnett)
> 
> Nine deaths have been reported (Fenner, et al. 1989). At least two were from exsanquination (significant or total blood loss) after the barb punctured a major blood vessel; two penetrated the heart, one causing instant death, the other causing death six days later from cardiac tamponade (accumulation of fluid in the pericardium - the membrane surrounding the heart), after chemical myocardial necrosis secondary to the penetrating stingray barb...


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## fish_doc (Jan 31, 2005)

> Nine deaths have been reported (Fenner, et al. 1989).


Lightning kills a average of 66 people per year. So Ill gladly take my chances. Time to go swimming. 

http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/overview.htm


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

Makes ya think who invented them metal cups..........Sittin out in the outfield middle of nothing but flat land and a storm comes up :lol:


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

Nice info, and it's highly appreciated. While most stingray stings are not fatal (freshwater rays especially), most will send you to the hospital.

I'd also like to point out one thing, the stingray that killed Steve was known for this. It was dubbed the name "scorpion stingray" by the locals, because they are known to raise tehy're tails up just like the one did when it hit irwin.

I've also heard of tons of members on other boards swimming with these exact creatures almost daily. Keep a good distance, an ddon't pose a threat, and it won't happen.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

The biggest problem in this situation was that the cameraman swam in front of it and frightened it. That's when it went into defensive mode and speared Steve, who was right above it.


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## vinimack720 (Apr 20, 2006)

I thought that it wasnt the poison that got him. I read that it was because he pulled the barb out which tore his heart up because of all the hooks/barbs on it.


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## Puffer Pita (Jun 16, 2006)

Yup, if it had hit him anywhere else, he more than likely would have lived as long as it wasn't in an artery that caused exsanguination.


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

Animal planet will be running a week long tribute to him starting tonite..........


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

I shall watch this...I watched everything they put up the day after he was pronounced dead..it was sad. Off to animal planet I shall go.


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