How do sting rays actually kill people?
World-famous “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, known for seeking out and handling some of the most dangerous animals in existence, died on September 4, 2006, in a shocking accident with a stingray. Six weeks later, a stingray jumped into a fishing boat in Florida and stabbed 81-year-old James Bertakis in the chest. Stingrays are considered by most experts to be docile creatures, only attacking in self-defense. Most stingray-related injuries to humans occur to the ankles and lower legs, when someone accidentally steps on a ray buried in the sand and the frightened fish flips up its dangerous tail. Officials are calling the Florida incident a totally freak occurrence. In the early stages of examining the Steve Irwin accident, some experts have hypothesized that the combined positions of Irwin (above the fish) and his cameraman (in front of the fish) could have made the stingray feel trapped and triggered a defensive attack; others point out that completely unprovoked stingray attacks are n
