Boater Survives Stingray Attack in Florida

[Sojiita]

Boater Survives Stingray Attack in Florida
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By REUTERS
Published: October 19, 2006
MIAMI, Oct. 18 (Reuters) — A leaping stingray stabbed an 81-year-old Florida boater in the chest, the authorities said on Wednesday, leaving its poisonous stinger lodged close to his heart in an incident recalling the one that killed the Australian television naturalist Steve Irwin last month.

Fire Department officials in Lighthouse Point, about 30 miles north of Miami, said the man, James Bertakis, was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren on Tuesday when the spotted eagle ray leaped aboard and struck him.

“It’s just a real freak thing,” Lt. Mike Sullivan told Reuters, saying the incident occurred on the Intercoastal Waterway, where stingrays are rarely seen leaping in the air.

“For an 81-year-old man, he’s in really good shape,” Lieutenant Sullivan added, saying Mr. Bertakis was expected to make a full recovery after surgery to have the stinger removed.

Mr. Irwin, 44, known as the Crocodile Hunter, died when a stingray’s stinger punctured his heart off Australia’s north coast last month. It was one of only a handful of stingray fatalities on record.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/19/us...ner=RRCOLUMBUS
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Damn it leaped right into the boat to stab the guy! Who says Australia has all the best killer animals? Of course where did this strango thing happen? FLORIDA!!!

[enctpc]

Freaky that it jumped into the boat..

[Grimmlok]

They've tasted blood! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

[Lobelia]

I seriously wonder what this will do to the swim-with-the-stingray industry. That was one of the most fun things I've ever done in my life, but I had no idea that I was in peril the entire time.

[LynnieD]

This is totally f-d up seriously. It's just too freaky....

[Sojiita]

They are smart little devils. Not only do they stab..they know to go for the heart!

[Grimmlok]

Well the ones you swim with and feed are the ones that are used to it.. practically domesticated. It's the random ones on the seafloor (or the ones that jump in your boat) that you have to be worried about.

Chances are the thing was spooked out of the water by something..

[Lobelia]

^^That's true. Didn't really consider that. They probably love people, & come 'running' like chickens when a boat pulls up. I guess they only stab people in the heart when they're freaked out

I guess I'll have to start keeping my ass off the sea floor.

[Grimmlok]

Yeah, i mean the tourist traps have specific spots they bring vacationers to, and the stingrays know they'll get fed and not abused over and over again. The ones that have very little contact with humans still perceive us as threats to be speared

[heather.rn]

was in a small recreational boat with two grandchildren on Tuesday when the spotted eagle ray leaped aboard and struck him.

or... his 2 grandkids decided to off him with a stingray barb to get his life insurance policy. Stingrays = the new murder

[AliceInWonderland]