mrmoshe Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 Fisherman stabbed in chest by stingray barb A FISHERMAN in a trawler off South Australia has been stabbed in the chest by a stingray barb, police say. The man was on a prawn trawler about seven nautical miles north-west of Wallaroo when he was stabbed by the ray about 10pm (CDT) yesterday. Police said the barb did not lodge itself in the man's chest or cause any respiratory problems and he was taken to a nearby hospital with minor injuries. Television personality and environmentalist Steve Irwin died in September after a stingray barb pierced his chest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flattieman Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 Not again! First we have Steve Irwin, then the poor guy in America and now another... Really gives stingrays a bad name in the public eye without much reason... Flattieman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coollamon Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 This probably happens more often than we would think But due to Steve's death more people are aware of it and the media takes the story and runs with it because it is a Public interest story Coollamon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flattieman Posted November 29, 2006 Share Posted November 29, 2006 This probably happens more often than we would think But due to Steve's death more people are aware of it and the media takes the story and runs with it because it is a Public interest story Coollamon Exactly - and it's unnecessary in my view. Stingray injuries are only inflicted at very close range and as a defence (in almost all cases) - it'd be best to aviod habdling stingrays at all if possible... Shuffling your feet when walking on sand underwater always helps too. Flattieman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrmoshe Posted November 30, 2006 Author Share Posted November 30, 2006 Further to the story of the Sth. Australian fisherman who survived a stingray barb to the chest: Seaman survives stingray strike From the S.M.H. An Australian prawn trawler deckhand stabbed in the chest by a stingray plans to hang the captured ray up in his shed and call it his "lucky wishbone". Danny Allen, 34, was pulling in nets during a trawling operation in the Spencer Gulf, off the South Australian coast, on Tuesday night, when the metre-long stingray struck him in his lower right ribcage with its 20 centimetre barb. The barb did not dislodge from the ray's tail but caused a 1 centimetre wide, 2 to 3 centimetre-deep wound that forced the boat's skipper, Robert Letinic, to speed back towards the coast to seek medical attention for his deckhand, who ended up spending the night in hospital. But Mr Allen, who was described by Mr Letinic as a "a big tough guy" who looks "like a bear", told smh.com.au that his injury was just part the risks associated with the job. "I went to move around the bag and the stingray was just buried in amongst the bag," he said. "I didn't see the barb was slipping out. "As I slipped past the bag - I was steadying it - it just pierced my chest. "With that you bloody think, 'What the hell?' I pulled away from it. I seen the barb. I thought, 'Oh, no'." Mr Allen immediately went into the boat's processing room to seek first aid. Mr Letinic said: "We rushed down and he's lying there in the galley holding his chest and blood's pouring out of it - enough for a stab wound. "It just narrowly missed his liver. [And] if it had been on the left side it would have just done a Steve Irwin there big time. "He was in a bit of shock, looking quite pale and then he said, 'I've been hit by a stingray'. We just put the gear on the vessel and headed straight for the port of Wallaroo." Mr Allen played down the injury and said he did not consider it in any way similar to the fatal barb strike suffered by crocodile hunter Steve Irwin earlier this year. "What happened to him was unfortunate. I was lucky to get away with it basically. It's just one of the hazards of the job. It's just one of the things that you look out for. It's just an unfortunate accident. "I didn't want it based around Steve Irwin. I was just doing my job. People get hurt at work all the time." "[The injury was] the size of a five cent piece. It was bugger all." Asked what he plans to do with the stingray, he said: "I will probably hang it up in me shed and call it me lucky wishbone or something. I was lucky. "That's the first time for me and hopefully the last time. Not a very nice experience." Mr Allen is not the only person to survive a stingray barb strike to the chest this year. In October, James Bertakis, an 81-year-old Florida man, survived after a stingray barb pierced his heart while he was fishing in a boat with his granddaughters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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