Stingray Kills Sunbathing Woman in Fla.

Mar 20 01:40 PM US/Eastern



MARATHON, Fla. (AP) - Officials say a woman died in the Florida Keys after a stingray jumped out of the water and struck her upper body.
The spotted eagle ray had hit the 55-year-old woman while she was in a boat Thursday. Officials say she was hit in the face or neck.

It's not clear whether the animal's barb struck the Michigan woman, or if the impact killed her.

Spotted eagle rays can grow up to 17 feet in length and weigh up to 500 pounds.

They are+ known to occasionally jump out of the water but are not aggressive.

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Fred H. Shomer RIP 11/19/07

I helped a guy get one out of his boat a couple years ago jumped rite in. It was a heavy mother too about 4 feet wide. Thats just crazy bad luck.

I saw one off of Hilton Head come about 10' out of the water almost straight up the lay out and glide back in..wild

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Fred H. Shomer RIP 11/19/07

A little more info - very sad story ...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/03/20/stingray/index.html

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- A woman sunbathing on a boat died after a stingray leaped from the water off the Florida Keys on Thursday and struck her, officials said.


The dead stingray lies on the deck of a boat in Florida.

"It's just as freakish of an accident as I have heard," said Jorge Pino of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "The chances of this occurring are so remote that most of us are completely astonished that this happened."

He said it was not clear whether the 55-year-old Michigan woman died from the blow to her head, from the ray's barb piercing her or from her fall backward.

The accident happened off the coast of Marathon Key, in the Florida Keys about an hour's drive south of Miami. The woman, who was with her husband and children, was taken to the Mariner Hospital in Tavernier, where she was pronounced dead.

Pino said he had seen stingrays leap into the air, but added, "it's very rare for them to collide with objects."

Results from an autopsy to be conducted by the medical examiner will be combined with witness statements and evidence from aboard the vessel to determine the cause of death, he said.

The spotted eagle ray weighed about 75 pounds, said Becky Herrin, a spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office.

The species, also called a leopard ray or bonnet skate, can measure up to 8 feet in length, with an 8-foot tail, and weigh up to 500 pounds, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's Web site.

They tend to swim close to the surface and can leap out of the water when being pursued, according to the site

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You will miss 100% of the shots you don't take.
There is no reality, only perception ...
Fishing is like sex, you don't have to be good at it to enjoy it.

Read the story this afternoon, talk about the wrong place at the wrong time. I feel terrible for the family they were all on the boat together.

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I'll sleep when I'm dead

Yall need more Hell Divers over there to thin them out.

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Rok out
http://www.TheRokZone.com/
http://www.HellDivers.org/

I was fishing off a bridge down towards the skyway the other day and there was probably 100 of them tiny spotted rays swimming around under the bridge. they was also jumping out of the water but not very high...

not to derail the thread but are they good to eat? which one and how do you clean and cook them?

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Fred H. Shomer RIP 11/19/07

nothing wrong with asking what they taste like, but just an fyi, illegal to harvest them in FL.

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Swimsuit Whore <3's Keezdiver

they used to catch rays and punch them out and sell them as scallops. but not here in fl of course!!!!!!