Beautiful!!

Lynn wrote:That is really cool!! I love stingrays! We actually swam with schools of them out in the "wild" in Grand Cayman a few times and they are just the coolest to watch! They are very friendly too, when they know you have squid in your hand

Ed wrote:

Bianca wrote:

Ed wrote:

What were Steve Irwin's last words?
"Cor, spikey!"

happytrails wrote:As beautiful as these things may look, I can assure you from personal experience being stung by one hurts like hell! I have spent time at the beach here at the Gulf of Mexico every summer since I was born and had never encountered them before. When I was about 28, I was wading in water just above my knees and I was stung - not once but twice. I never even saw the thing. I ran from the water screaming to find my foot bleeding and two puncture wounds. Then the venom kicked in and the pain really started. It was excruciating. For any of you who have every been stung by a jellyfish (no SpongeBob jokes, please), it is about 10 times as painful being stung by a stingray. By the time we reached the ER, my entire lower leg was in pain. I finally get back to see a doctor and what is the initial treatment? They stick my foot and leg in a bucket of boiling water and I mean scalding hot! Apparently, the boiling water neutralizes the protein in the venom and causes the worst of the pain to stop. You then have to be xrayed to see if there is still parts of the "barb" left in the wound. Finally they gave me a tetanus shot which I had a bad allergic reaction to. They said by the size of the barb and the puncture wounds they estimated the stingray to "only" have about a 5 foot wingspan. Only? Hell I wonder how bad it would have hurt if it had been a full grown stingray! I still have the freaking little round scars on the top of my foot...

Lynn wrote:

happytrails wrote:As beautiful as these things may look, I can assure you from personal experience being stung by one hurts like hell! I have spent time at the beach here at the Gulf of Mexico every summer since I was born and had never encountered them before. When I was about 28, I was wading in water just above my knees and I was stung - not once but twice. I never even saw the thing. I ran from the water screaming to find my foot bleeding and two puncture wounds. Then the venom kicked in and the pain really started. It was excruciating. For any of you who have every been stung by a jellyfish (no SpongeBob jokes, please), it is about 10 times as painful being stung by a stingray. By the time we reached the ER, my entire lower leg was in pain. I finally get back to see a doctor and what is the initial treatment? They stick my foot and leg in a bucket of boiling water and I mean scalding hot! Apparently, the boiling water neutralizes the protein in the venom and causes the worst of the pain to stop. You then have to be xrayed to see if there is still parts of the "barb" left in the wound. Finally they gave me a tetanus shot which I had a bad allergic reaction to. They said by the size of the barb and the puncture wounds they estimated the stingray to "only" have about a 5 foot wingspan. Only? Hell I wonder how bad it would have hurt if it had been a full grown stingray! I still have the freaking little round scars on the top of my foot...

That's why you visit them in a place like Grand Cayman where boats and boats of people arrive all day long to interact with them year after year. They have no fear of humans. It started with fisher boats cleaning their fish that attracted them to the sand bar, and then someone got the idea to make it a tourist attraction. They do tell you to shuffle your feet, though I never actually saw any sitting in the sand. They are HUGE and they swim around looking to be fed. The worst thing that happened to me was not holding the squid properly for one of them to eat and he sucked on my hand so hard it caused a mark Luckily they have no teeth.

Styxman wrote:
I like one of them in my bed at night

Moon Beam wrote:

Styxman wrote:
I like one of them in my bed at night

Of course you would Styxman.