[FEL-L] Stingray Deaths Rare

[GemOJungle at aol.com]

Stingray Deaths Rare
Marine experts in Australia said  it's not easy to be injured by a stingray 
-- and very few people are killed by  them.  
Neuroscientist Shaun Collin at the University of Queensland said Irwin,  
probably died because the barb pierced under his ribcage and directly into his  
heart.  
Stingrays have a serrated, toxin-loaded barb, or spine, on the top of  their 
tail. The barb can be up to ten inches long and it flexes if a ray is  
frightened.  
Collin said stings usually occur to people when they step on or swim too  
close to a ray and can be excruciatingly painful but are rarely fatal. 
 
"He came on top of the stingray and the stingray's barb went up and into  his 
chest and put a hole into his heart," said Irwin's friend and producer John  
Stainton, who was on board Irwin's boat at the time. 
 
Australian wildlife filmmaker David Ireland said that the stingray's tail was 
 "like a bayonet on a rifle".  
"If it hits any vital organs it's as deadly as a bayonet," he said. 
No person has bee killed by a stingray since 1945 in Australian  waters
 
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