Your pictures make a wonderful story!
A lot of colorful denizens!
Fabulous!
Asher
Wow, James, wonderful photos. I especially like the one where a couple is holding hands and will go in together. Braver than I, that is for sure!
Maggie
James,
We also have big dip ceremoniously in the Pacific around New Year. In the past one week, we have over 400 dippers attacked by sting rays hiding in and disturbed in the shallow water!
Generally the 10-14 cm barb pierces a leg or thigh. There was one death when a fellow go his chest perforated. But that is rare. The barbs can break off and then surgery is needed to get the remnants out. If not, then a festering infection ensues!
Folk are supposed to slowly enter the water with the "stingray shuffle"! This shuffling of the feet, or else throwing pebbles in the water, alerts the stingray to get out of the way.
Asher
Asher
Dam... that is nasty. I remember the famous crocodile guy Steve Irwin died a number of years ago from getting one directly into his heart. Apparently the big stingrays can have barbs up to 14 inches in length.
The water isn't very warm on this coast so it is not a problem. The article was well written but from what I understood,was that the stingrays are over populated and food supply is short? Star fish on the Oregon coast are 95% gone. The seagull population as fallen off on our coast due to shell fish depletion according to some that I have spoken to. This is noticeable jut in the past couple of years? I did see a duck eating a big chunk of plastic the other day. Plastic is something that has been identified as a major problem. However stingrays wouldn't be a big threat to swimmers compared with piranhas.
James