under the sea...

The other day my husband came home from his summer Life guarding job at our city beach. It had mostly been an uneventful summer, which is good if your a lifeguard, no rescues, safe beach!
This day he told me a man had been "hit".
My heart sank. I asked "how bad?" "Pretty bad, through the ankle, just like you. He needed an i.v. for pain on the beach" . Oh dear.

Can you guess what we were talking about? It's the Stingray. A cousin to the shark, very beautiful to look at and even good to eat in some parts of the world. But you never want to come in contact with it and it's razor sharp barbs. In the above photo you can see how the stingray settles itself down to rest and feed on the ocean bottom. Sometimes they are covered entirely. So even if you were looking you might miss one and step on it. Which is what happened to the man the other day...and a few years ago, me...

map of stingray territory, they prefer warmer water

It is not my intention to scare anyone, I only want to share with you what I know. It's a simple and easy thing to protect yourself at the beach, there's something you can do, it's called the stingray shuffle. Have you heard of this? You simply shuffle your feet on the ocean floor (or stamp them). The idea is to give warning to the unsuspecting stingray, he'll leave after feeling the vibration announcing your arrival. He really doesn't want to sting (stab), it's only his defense mechanism at work.

In 1999, my husband, then boyfriend, and I went for a paddle, here in the seaside town where we live. After kayaking north for about a mile we decided to beach our boats to have a swim and a rest in the warm sand. I was first to the beach and so I was the first back out in the ocean for a dip.

It happened so fast and with so much force at first I thought a shark had got me. I was in waist deep water and blood was already rising to the surface. I looked towards shore and saw Chuck lying there in the sand. I tried to call him. Like in a bad dream, my voice wouldn't work. I was sure by then if I didn't leave the water immediately, I would be eaten. With a throbbing ankle and in slow motion I finally made it to the shore, fear my only motivator. Chuck took one look at me and said "Stingray" and then he said "We've got to get back". He looked at the boat and said "Can you paddle?"

At this point the poison had worked its way up to the top of my thigh. Blood had completely saturated a beach towel we'd wrapped around the injury. I was NOT going back in the water, therefore, I would NOT be paddling. Chuck had no patience for me since we were trapped and there was no other way out. He insisted I get back in the water, by now the waves were coming up and I prayed I wouldn't tip over as I pushed through them, by now in shock. As soon as I got past the break line I waited for Chuck to catch up to me. He tied our boats together and paddled us into the wind, towards home.

Chuck carried me into the E.R., I remember the nurses saying I looked like a mermaid. That would have been great in another situation, but I don't think my new boyfriend was impressed, I've never been in so much pain in my entire life. And I've had babies. With no medication, one even born at home. It was unbelievable. We spent hours at the emergency room, my leg first sunk in a big bucket of scalding water. The heat deactivates the venom. I wanted it hotter. Later, I would have 2nd degree burns on part of my leg, but that was nothing for the pain of the stingray poison. I was hit so hard that the barb went in one side of my ankle and nearly exited the other side. It was complete agony when they had to clean the wound to remove any lurking barbs that may have broken off. That's when we discovered how deep it went.

"The stingray's spine, or barb, can be ominously fashioned with serrated edges and a sharp point. The underside may produce venom, which can be fatal to humans, and which can remain deadly even after the stingray's death. In Greek mythology, Odysseus, the great king of Ithaca, was killed when his son Telegonus, struck him using a spear tipped with the spine of a stingray."

It was a long recovery. Infection set in. I guess this is common when unknown bacteria enters our bodies. Weeks of crutches, limping, pain... I remembered from my childhood, (when I first learned the shuffle) my Dad had told us about the dangers of a stingray encounter. He used to spend alot of time in Baja, Mexico, with his diving buddies. He told us it was the only time he'd ever seen a grown man cry. They had no cure then, the poor guy could only ease his pain with whisky or tequila.

Finally I had to have surgery. That was a bit of a problem right there since no one knew just what to do, some didn't even know what a stingray was! If I didn't have permanent damage (nerves and such, the ankle is a complicated place) this would be a fun story to tell. Well, it's still fun and maybe the reason it happened to me is so I could tell everyone Shuffle your feet! It took me a long time before I would go in the water again. I shuffle without fail nowadays.





"Clyde Stewart, 72, said he didn’t know what hit him when he was fishing for bait near Balgal Beach, AU on Tuesday afternoon.
A stingray came out of nowhere and skewered him just below the knee. He looked down all he could see was blood pouring out of his overalls. The barb tore through Stewart’s heavy-duty industrial overalls, hitting the bone. Ew.
He was taken to Townsville Hospital for surgery. Stewart said the pain was so excruciating that doctors could have just cut his leg off and he wouldn’t have cared." http://www.swimatyourownrisk.com/

Here is part of my collection, I have stuffed stingrays, wooden stingrays, stingray bookmarks, stingray cards, even a stingray charm. I am sorry I stepped on that stingray that day, I must have landed on him pretty hard for him to have got me so good. I used to worry if I hurt him. Do you think he tells his side of the story? The day he was stepped on by a mermaid? ;)

♥ lori

p.s. don't forget to shuffle your feet...

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p.p.s. This morning I came across an article in Audubon magazine, I had to add:

" The cow-nosed ray is armed with a venomous tail spike, as Captain John Smith learned in 1608 when he stabbed one with his sword near the Rappahannock River (Massachusetts). The ray stabbed back with a very palpable hit to Smith's shoulder, causing such intense pain that his crew dug a grave for him. By evening, however, Smith had improved enough to eat the ray for his supper. The scene of this duel is still known as Stingray Point."

yikes.