[Previous entry: "MOVIES ...............currently on release worldwide."] [Next entry: "Stingray Spine Memoirs ........Ron Isbell recalls his childhood."]

14/12/2004: "Dangerous to play with ..............a warning (continued)."

Big stingray can be lethal. Even small ones have the ability to inflict super-severe pain.

So when underwater adventurers play with and feed these seemingly docile bottom dwellers, is it a wise move? Definately not. My message is avoid stingray like you would avoid 'the plague'.

Remember Anthony Newly who founded the Australian magazine Scuba Diver years ago? He encountered a large stingray in Fijian waters whose venomeous spine severed a major artery in his leg. I imagine there was incredible agony while bleeding, eventually into death.

I sincerely hope it all ended sooner rather than later for this once brave man of business and the sea.

Pictured above: Dianne Widdowson of Coralita charter boat fame. This grouping of giant stingray occured at the Yongala shipwreck site, out from Townsville, QLD. Sleeping with wing-tips touching, the rays were able to alert each other as they were quietly disturbed by our bubbles.

Depth: about 30 meters to the sand. It's a blue world down there. The big ray in the foreground has the tail raised - a warning and a defense posture. The venomeous spine is located near the centre of the tail - not the very tip as many folk imagine.