Jumping eagle ray kills boater off Florida Keys

[TJ Phaserman 2]

MIAMI (Reuters) - An eagle ray leaped onto a boat off the Florida Keys on Thursday and stabbed a woman with its barb, knocking her to the deck and killing her, a Florida wildlife investigator said.

 

"It's a bizarre accident," said Jorge Pino, an agent with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

 

The woman and her family were aboard a boat in the Atlantic Ocean, off the city of Marathon in the Florida Keys, he said.

 

"A large ray jumped out of the water and collided with the victim and somehow the barb penetrated some part of her body, which caused her to fall back and hit her head on some portion of the vessel," Pino said. "We don't know exactly which one of those things caused her death."

 

Local media said the animal's barb had impaled the woman through the neck.

 

Eagle rays are common in warm or tropical waters and are often seen near coral reefs. The spotted creatures can grow to more than 8 feet across and have two to six short, venomous barbs near the base of their whip-like tails, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History's Web site.

 

The rays often swim near the water's surface and can leap out, especially when pursued, but are generally shy of humans.

 

"All rays leap out of the water from time to time but certainly to see one collide with a vessel is extremely unusual," Pino said.

 

Steve Irwin, the host of the "Crocodile Hunter" television show was killed by another type of ray while filming underwater on Australia's Great Barrier Reef in 2006. He died when a stingray's barb pierced his heart.

[Kor37 9]

WOW!......

[Theunicornhunter 2]

It is unfortunate that she died but we don't hear a lot about stingrays.

 

I just read that she died in front of her children - that is truly sad.

 

 

There are other situations of fish jumping into boats - like the sturgeon in the Suwanne river that while still rare are not quite so rare.

Edited March 20, 2008 by TheUnicornHunter

[TJ Phaserman 2]

update

 

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A boater who was killed when a ray jumped out of the water in the Florida Keys and hit her face died of skull fractures and brain injuries, not from the animal's poisonous barb, a medical examiner said Friday. Judy Kay Zagorski, 57, of Pigeon, Mich., was in the front of a boat going 25 mph on Thursday when a 75-pound spotted eagle ray leapt from the water and hit her in a freak collision.

 

Monroe County's medical examiner, Dr. Michael Hunter, determined that the cause of death was "blunt force" head injury and that the collision with the ray killed her off Marathon, about 50 miles northeast of Key West.

 

Hunter's report noted she suffered "multiple skull fractures and direct brain injury resulting in sudden death," said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

 

She was not stung by the ray. The collision knocked Zagorski backward, onto the floor of the boat, Pino said.

 

"The force of that impact was dramatic," he said.

 

The family requested that no autopsy be performed, Pino said.

 

Zagorski was vacationing with her family in Marathon. She was on the boat with her father, Virgil Bouck, 88, who was driving; her mother, Verneta; and her sister, Joyce Ann Miller, Pino said.

 

Zagorski's brother, Dan Bouck, called her a "truly awesome sister" who volunteered to work with terminally ill patients and operated a marina.

 

Her husband of 33 years, Steve, also died unexpectedly two years ago from complications after shoulder surgery, he said.

 

"We all miss Judy dearly. It just really hasn't even sunk in yet," Bouck said Friday.

 

Spotted eagle rays can grow to about 17 feet long, including the tail, and weigh up to 500 pounds. Some have wingspans as wide as 10 feet.

 

They are not aggressive and use the venomous barb at the end of their tail for defense.

 

While they are known to occasionally jump out of the water to escape predators, remove parasites or give birth, collisions with humans are "unheard of," Pino said. "It was a freak, freak accident."

 

Spotted eagle rays are protected in Florida waters and are typically seen swimming in groups near the ocean's surface.

 

Ray encounters may be rare, but they do happen.

 

In 2006, a South Florida man was critically injured when a stingray flopped into his boat and stung him. James Bertakis, 82, of Lighthouse Point, underwent surgery after the stingray left a foot-long barb in his heart. He has since recovered.

 

"Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was killed in 2006 when a stingray's barb pierced his heart off Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

 

you'd think they would stop mentioning what happened to steve irwin