Recently this blog has been receiving a significant amount of visitors looking for more information on the stingray barb, no doubt because they are curious how and perhaps why the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was killed.

I, too, have been fascinated by the barb, especially when I saw what it looked like in the CNN video. I decided to learn more about stingrays and their barbs. Was it like a bee’s stinger or porcupine’s needles? How many of these barbs does a stingray have? Off to do my own search engine seeking.

The stingray barb is a defensive mechanism, it isn’t an aggressive creature. About the only time it stings is when it feels threatened or when it is directly stepped on, usually while feeding in the sand.

Stingray details
Lifespan - over 20 years
Mating period - from March to late September
Attributes - good smell and eyesight
Barb size and what to do if stung - Up to twice as long as your index finger and contains poisonous venom. The barb can be broken off or discharged completely by the stingray. It will regrow. Lifespan.org describes what to do if struck by a barb. Generally humans are struck in the legs but strikes have proven fatal, although rarely, above the waist.
Food - stingrays feed on crabs, conch, shrimp, worms and even small fish. Some people eat catch and eat stingrays [see recipes]. Touche.
Location: Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela Found in South America in the Uruguay, Paran - Paraguay, Orinoco, and Amazon basins.

The Atlantis hotel has stingrays
Being it’s our anniversary month, my wife and I have been looking around at places we would like to visit someday and at the top of the list is the Atlantis Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas.

The Atlantis is one of the coolest looking hotels we’ve never seen in person. We did some checking and visiting there from Seattle for 4 days costs around $1,500-$2,500+ USD for two people including hotel and airfare and usually one or more activities. There are restaurants, nightclubs, casinos and plenty of water and beach-related things to do. Any readers ever been to this place? It looks like a lot of fun and quite relaxing.

The Atlantis has many eagle rays, stingrays and one manta ray according to the Wikipedia.

Snorkeling with the rays
For less than $50 USD tourists can go on an all day snorkeling trip in Stingray City in the Cayman Islands Carribean. These trips include how to snorkel “where rays swim freely with humans in only three feet of water.”

This piece wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the abysmal Florida baseball team, the Tampa Bay Devilrays. Earlier this year, the Devil Rays added a tank setup with stingrays in their ballpark where fans can pet stingrays.

What has been learned about stingrays
If you are walking around in shallow water in stingray areas, be careful where you step. After stepping on a broken bottle in the sand many years ago, I’m already a bit sheepish in walking around barefoot in sandy water. It seems if the stingray is feeding, however, that you might not be able to see them buried in the sand. Could be an unavoidable accident.

Be respectful, not scared of stingrays, as they seem to be rather passive creatures, but with a painful defensive strike if provoked. The incident with Steve Irwin appears to have been a freak accident as many have reported.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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