Stingrays: the new assassin

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By Jenna Gibbs

With all the recent news, you have to wonder how many freak accidents have to occur before people finally realize the truth. That’s right. Stingrays are out to get us, and they’re picking us off one by one.

The latest victim of a “freak accident” was a 57-year-old Michigan woman vacationing in Florida with her family. The woman was allegedly sunbathing on a boat just off the Florida Keys when a 75-pound spotted eagle ray jumped out of the water and hit her.

The force of the ray knocked the woman down and caused her to hit her head on the deck. The spotted eagle ray died on impact, and the woman passed away later at the hospital.

The kamikaze ray was relatively young weighing only 75 pounds with a wingspan of only five or six feet. A full grown spotted eagle ray can weigh up to 500 pounds with a wingspan of up to 10 feet.

At the time of the attack, the victim’s father was driving the boat at 25 miles per hour. Apparently, that wasn’t fast enough.

Marine biologists maintain that rays are gentle creatures who do not harm people unless provoked or pursued.

“Rays jump to escape a predator, give birth and shake off parasites,” said Lynn Gear, supervisor of fishes and reptiles at Theater of the Sea in Islamorada. “They do not attack people.”

That’s exactly what they want you to think.

But, wait. If rays never attack people, and this was just a freak accident, what about Steve Irwin? Are they suggesting that he was harassing the stingray who took his life? Blasphemy!

And even more compelling evidence that the rays are out to get us brings us back to 2006. Another spotted eagle ray jumped into a boat with an 81-year-old man. Instead of using brute force, however, this ray stabbed the man in the heart with his poisonous barb.

Despite the ray’s efforts, the man survived.

According to Jorge Pino, an officer with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, “All rays leap out of the water from time to time but certainly to see one collide with a vessel is extremely unusual.”

Well, whatever helps you sleep at night.

E-mail the author at Jenna@tigerweekly.com

Originally Published: Issue 601 - March 26, 2008

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