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14/12/2004: "Stingray Spine Memoirs ........Ron Isbell recalls his childhood."
"I was only eight years old when I stepped on a sleeping stingray in shallow water...."
"The pain was incredible. Dad scubbed the wound with a brush, which I wasn't too happy about either. He was removing the 'slime' which the spine leaves behind. It all healed without any problem. We were living at Cannonvale near Airlie Beach in those times. I later moved to Gladstone and operated two luxury charter boats, Sea Hunt and later Tropic Rover. We took thousands to the reef, I always took care to avoid anyone else stepping on a ray. The pain alone is a memorable event, infection is the bad-bonus".
(Ron was Queensland's first state spearfishing champion fifty years ago. A real man of the sea).
The fresh stingray spine (above, alongside a younger Ron Isbell) shows the flakes of slime which remain in the wound. It's painful stuff which probably has not been widely studied by toxicologists. What it is all about is for the future scientists willing enough to come into close contact with a potent potential. How the ray's manage to manufacture this toxin is another interesting question. Something in the food they prefer? Venomeous sea shells would be a major part of their diet, but not so in cooler southern waters where different stingray are found. Do the toxins vary much? Questions questions.
A noted (world authority) scientist who studies stingrays complained by letter to National Geographic that their picture story of the Bahamas tame 'Stingray City' (showing divers in close contact underwater feeding stingrays) was promoting a future personal disaster.
"The magazine's response was unsatisfactory," he told me.
