You Can Call Me Ray
by Therra Cathryn Gwyn
It’s been almost two years since the death of conservationist and television mega-personality, Steve Irwin, the wildlife wild man of “Crocodile Hunter” fame. Irwin died a most improbable death, being pierced in the heart by a stingray while filming a television special. There have been other almost-as-improbable stingray encounters since then, most notably an 81-year-old Florida man also speared in the chest, this time in 2007 when a ray “jumped” into his boat. He survived. These newsworthy events have sparked an interest and some fear centering on a relatively unique and very docile sea creature commonly known as the stingray or manta ray. To be “attacked” by a ray is almost an anomaly because they don’t normally attack. They react. In other words, they don’t come after you. They react to what you do. However, I did recently see a gentleman on one of these ubiquitous TV shows of funny and painful home videos who got bit in the, er, lower manly regions by a rather large stingray while on vacation. This is even more improbable than being speared in the heart on film, I feel certain. I have to hand it to this guy. Not only did he allow the footage to be shown for the amusement of 14-year-olds everywhere (and the queasy amusement of people his own age), he seemed to survive the incident fairly intact and since scuba gear renders most of us unrecognizable, he can always pretend it happened to someone else.
But let’s talk about you. Let’s discuss the very real possibility that if you are one of the millions of people who enjoy the beach and tropical waters, you may see or encounter one of these creatures. How afraid should you be? Not very. How cautious should you be? Very. There are a lot of places in the world where you can get stung and really ruin a good vacation. Rays are quite common in waters off Florida and into the Caribbean. There are more than several varieties of rays and depending which one you are looking for (or avoiding) they can also be found in the western Atlantic from as far north New Jersey and Massachusetts (not common) to the Gulf of Mexico as well as off the coasts of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay in South America and the West Indies and the Antilles. They are also found in Mexico, Africa, New Zealand (which reported a rise in stingrays “attacks” in Jan. 2008, one of their summer months) and, of course, Australia, where Irwin died.
The ray belongs to the Dasyatidae family and unlike their more fearsome cousins, sharks (yes the two species are directly related) rays are not known for predatory or erratic behavior. Completely ignored by Hollywood in favor of great whites, giant squids, and Orcas when it comes to the aquatic horror film line-up, they do not usually strike terror in the hearts of water enthusiasts and casual beach goers. And there’s a reason for that. You could hardly find an animal less suited to being in the glare of celebrity or less likely to live up to a reputation as a killer. Generally, not stepping on one is all anyone need do to stay safe.
Several species of rays live in southern US waters, including the Cownose ray, the Bullnose ray (the kind that killed Irwin, albeit a much larger one than usually seen in the United States), the Eagle ray and most commonly, the Atlantic stingray (known as “atlantinkeihasrausku”in Finland) and Southern Stingray. The majority of the species in the Gulf of Mexico measure from one to three feet across the broadest part of their bodies, also known as their “wingspan”. Florida has one anomaly stingray. The ray found throughout much of the St. John’s River has the distinction of being the only stingray in North America able to spend its entire life in freshwater.
Stingrays are featured in many aquariums and marine parks around the world. At the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, they are part of a “hands on” exhibit where visitors can touch them and feel their smooth “wings”. Before Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Mississippi, Marine Life in Gulfport had a touching and feeding tank that featured rays and other aquatic animals. The rays in these exhibits have their stinger trimmed by park personnel so it poses no threat to the public.
Beachgoers on the beautiful Emerald Coast in the panhandle of Florida can often spot local varieties from docks or while snorkeling and can watch as the rays appear to gracefully “fly” through the water. Harder to see is when they are burrowed in the sand with only their eyes and a bit of tail visible.
“In their world, they want to stay hidden,” said George Burgess, Director of the Florida Program for Shark Research at the Florida Museum of Natural History “The ray is part of our environment. Their spine makes them dangerous to us but they are not aggressive. Quite the opposite. The average person going into the water on your beaches needs not to worry.”
So just how does an average person at the beach manage to safely share space with the often hidden creature? “Just do the ‘stingray shuffle’. Burgess advised, “Shuffle your feet rather than take steps. That way if you bump one it will simply swim away.”
But put your weight on the plate-shaped creature and you could get a nasty “sting” and jagged wound from the barb situated at the base of its long, whip like tail as it attempts to defend itself. According to The American Academy of Family Physicians, stingrays account for an estimated 1,500 mostly minor injuries in the United States annually. Minor, but not painless, as the spine or barb at the base of a ray’s tail is serrated (similar to a steak knife) and contains a venom gland. The barb, including the venom gland, may break off in the attack and could remain in the wound. The venom has vasoconstrictive properties that can lead to necrosis (death of tissue in a localized area) or can cause ultra- slow healing of the wound. Other symptoms can include immediate and intense pain, salivation, nausea, diarrhea, muscle cramps, seizures, headaches, and cardiac arrhythmias. Marine bacteria can add complications to a wound that isn’t properly treated or cleaned out.
Death by stingray is extremely rare, with only 17 ever recorded (Box Jellyfish have killed four times as many people) and there appears to have only been one other person to have survived the type of injury that killed Irwin, a direct hit to the heart, where, experts have said it was the loss of blood, and probably not the envenomation or sting, that proved fatal. Kevin M. Walsh, director of Gulf World Marine Park in Panama City Beach, commented on Irwin’s death, “It was just a tragedy. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard of that happening and I’ve worked in the industry for 30 years.”
“In their own environment rays are very docile animals,” Walsh continued, “Shy by nature, and not a threat to anything.” Walsh knows, however, by painful first-hand experience, how rays protect themselves when they feel the need to. He was stung when he accidentally stepped on one at the beach and said he fully understood the often-excruciating experience related by others who suffered the same fate: “It’s painful. The barb is protein so when it goes in and breaks off you must make sure to get it all out.”
Proper treatment should begin immediately and include letting the wound bleed and application of hot water to flush out the toxin. Pain from the injury can last 36 hours or longer.
Lest this information make you more afraid of the shy creature making the international news these days, caution, not fear, should carry the day at the beach. They need that barb to protect themselves from marine predators and even their own relatives, since sharks love feasting on rays.
“The normal stingray is afraid of humans.” Burgess assures again. By normal, he means ones that are not being fed by people, either divers or tour operators, in marine sanctuaries in Belize and off the coasts of beach meccas Antigua and Grand Cayman, where there are special spots known as “ Stingray City”. At these spots snorkelers can swim with large and friendly Southern Stingrays and interact with other socialized rays. Here is where television and film crews get that spectacular, if a bit misleading, footage of divers holding on to magnificent rays with a five feet wingspan, soaring through the water in tandem like inter-species beach buddies. Look at any vacation photos from the Bahamas on various online share sites and you’ll see first-time snorkelers holding and feeding large manta rays, shaking “hands” with them, getting a ‘backrub” from a stingray. It’s a photo opportunity few can pass up and since the rays are accustomed to humans they are quite comfortable around them. I feel certain this is where the gentlemen I mentioned earlier discovered the crotch-biting variety of stingray. (Really, one never wants wildlife of the land or sea to be that comfortable around you).
Those rays have been tamed, Burgess explained, by being fed by tourists and those who make a living from tourism. Otherwise, the rule is to never handle or unnecessarily approach a stingray in the wild. If spooked they can activate that infamous stinger and you could become one of the sorer but wiser people for whom a day at the beach ended up being nothing but a big pain.
PANIC RATING:
One brow furrow - don’t lose any sleep over this one.
Go the beach, relax, and don’t forget to shuffle your feet.
Copyright © 2009, The Daily Panic
The Daily Panic.com
The Daily Panic ™ What's there to worry about?
The Daily Panic ™ is written by Therra Cathryn Gwyn and addresses current issues in the news and public consciousness that cause concern for some reason, good reason or no reason. Explore the issue here and see if the experts are sounding any alarms or if we can all go back to what we were doing. After all, do we really need more things to fret about?
Don’t worry, there’s a rating system based on how wrinkled your forehead gets thinking about the subject at hand.
One furrow - don’t even bother getting wrinkles over this one.
Two furrows - action taken now will keep your forehead smooth later.
Three furrows - a big problem in your world, maybe in all of our worlds.
Botox Alert- so worrisome you’ll need cosmetic help to erase the lines. Take action to avoid.... at all costs.
Don’t be afraid. Be informed.
Don’t Tread On Me
Advice from the Divers Alert Network and medicineonline.com: on what to do if you step wrong and get stung.
• All stingray injuries should be seen by a medical professional as soon as possible.
• An easy treatment that can be started immediately (sometimes at the scene of the injury) is immersion of the affected body part in hot water (preferably 110-115°F). If you can’t immerse the injured area in water then use a hot pack. The water should be as hot as the person can tolerate but should not cause burns. As the water cools exchange for hot water again. Do this for 30-90 minutes. This reportedly eases pain as the heat helps deactivate the toxins
.
• After the effects of the poison have been lessened by the hot water, attention should shift to wound care. Remove any foreign body from the wound, including the spine and sheath from the stingray stinger, as well as dirt or sand.
• Explore the puncture or cut thoroughly and flush it out. At a medical facility you may ask for a radiographic image of the injured area to look for retained barbs or other foreign material that might remain but cannot easily be seen.
• As with any potentially contaminated wound, consider allowing it to heal without stitches.
• You may need a tetanus shot or antibiotics, as directed by a medical professional. They may also give a local anesthetic to help with pain control at the site of the injury.
Photo : Therra C. Gwyn
