Spotted Eagle Ray collides with boater

[cdiver2]

From the BBC News

Leaping stingray kills US woman

The stingray also died after the impact
A US woman on a boat off the Florida Keys has died after a stingray leaped up and struck her in the face.
Judy Kay Zagorski was boating with her family in the Atlantic Ocean when the 75lb (34kg) spotted eagle ray hit her.

The force of the blow knocked the 57-year-old over and her head struck the deck of the vessel, in what officials called a "bizarre incident".

The stingray died in the impact. Mrs Zagorski, of Pigeon, Michigan, was pronounced dead in hospital.

"It's just as freakish an accident as I have heard," wildlife official Jorge Pino told the Associated Press news agency.

Mr Pino said she did not appear to have been pierced by any of the ray's barbs.

The incident occurred near the town of Marathon in southern Florida.

In September 2006, Australian TV naturalist Steve Irwin died when a stingray's barb punctured his heart as he filmed at Queensland's Great Barrier Reef.

A month later, an 81-year-old Florida man was lucky to survive after a stingray landed in his boat and left a foot-long barb in his chest.

 

[Papa_Bear]

It jump into the air at the same time the boat was going 35mph and they both died from the impact! The picture of the Ray shows a smashed eye socket and blood! Both died instantly! Freak is hardly the word!

 

[caymaniac]

Hey CD, when I seen the news report the news woman had never heard of a EagleRay and thought that the inciddent was reported incorrectly as it was a stingray.
Other than that what's up on your dive list ? Have you been diving near home at all?

 

[cdiver2]

Hey CD, when I seen the news report the news woman had never heard of a EagleRay and thought that the inciddent was reported incorrectly as it was a stingray.
Other than that what's up on your dive list ? Have you been diving near home at all?

Well we all Know a lot of the news people do not know a lot about marine life/diving ,so that doe's not surprise me.

Not a lot going on at this end we have just said good by to three visitors they left this am. Annnnnd I got layed off last Friday so the door is wide open for me to do what I want now.....at least until Colleen makes me go look for a job, I am being real nice to her so it may last a while.

We go to St Thomas in April (job related for Colleen) but on reading about the diving we decided to give it a miss. Other than that we have no other plans this year.

I believe you are off to Hawaii ?

 

[Teamcasa]

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[DandyDon]

How many threads we had started on this now...?

American killed by deer collisions annually: 100 or more.

When we drive thru their world, we take our chances. In the Rolling Plains below the High Plains here, we have to watch for deer, big feral hogs, and even large porcupines.

Sad accident, nonetheless...

 

[dtcmarical]

Thought this may be found interesting. Yahoo has a story of an eagle ray jumping out of the water and colliding with a woman in a moving boat. Unfortunately she died from her injuries. When we were in Coz in Jan, there was a report of an eagle ray jumping and landing in a dive boat.

Hope everyone is enjoying their diving. Hope to return soon, dtcmarical

 

[sharky60]

The news report I heard said she died from the impact, the fish was over 50lbs. and the boat was apparently moving pretty good.

It is not uncommon for rays to breach the water. There is no exact known reason for this, but scienctists think it has something to do with feeding, much like white sharks breaching when feeding on seals.

I have also heard of baracuda breaching and "jumping" into boats before.

 

[ggunn]

The news report I heard said she died from the impact, the fish was over 50lbs. and the boat was apparently moving pretty good.

It is not uncommon for rays to breach the water. There is no exact known reason for this, but scienctists think it has something to do with feeding, much like white sharks breaching when feeding on seals.

I have also heard of baracuda breaching and "jumping" into boats before.

I've seen mantas jumping before in the Gulf of Mexico. It's pretty impressive to see a big one do that. I've read speculation by marine biologists that they are trying to loosen parasites from their gills.

 

[TheUWPhotographer.com]

On our Dec. trip to Galapagos a dolphin jumped into the panga at Wolf Island. We were underwater at the time and there were dolphin everywhere. From beneath could see them jumping but didn't know what happened until we surfaced. He knocked over the panga driver and gave him a concussion. He was OK, but pretty rattled. The dolphin could not get out of the panga by himself. It took a bunch of the crew to put it back into the water. That whole incident could have been much worse than it was. We nick-named the panga driver "Duck".