Lords of Death Forums Lords of Death Forums LoD General Discussion Crocodile Hunter Pk'd r/l

LOL

There have been only 17 reported stingray related deaths worldwide.
http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/15449673.htm
"The chances of being pierced in your heart are just freakish."
Quoted from the article.

You have to realize this is a guy who deals with the deadliest of the deadliest creatures on a daily basis. He plays with brown snakes and other extremely venomous snakes constantly. He jumps in a crocodile pen holding his 1month old son and is feeding the crocs while holding his son in his other arm. So while "deadly is deadly" it still is a relative term.
The thing is with sting rays is they don't really attack. It isn't something they do consciously its a reflex. If they can they will swim away. The most normal case with sting rays is that people step on them and as a reflex their barb whips up and goes through the person's foot. That is why I am not sure how he managed to take one to the chest, unless he completely cornered it with it at chest level and had no other means of escape. That or he laid on it.
Isn't it at the Caymans that they have sting ray alley where people go to swim with hundreds of sting rays at a time? If they were so deadly I doubt it would be such a booming business.

The fact that people are able to let their stupidity overcome their common sense dosent make something safe , The fact that 100,000 people a year are willing to skydive out of a plane dosent make it safe , So really saying because lots of people are doing it makes it safe is just to cover up the fact that it is in fact stupid and dangerous.

crikey mate i got me a stinger
^LOL

That was clever on all sorts of levels.

I didn't say it makes it safe. I said it shows that they aren't horribly deadly. You don't see petting zoos with rattlesnakes in them, because they are too deadly. The fact is that most animals can be deadly, but that doesn't mean that they are deadly. Look at horses for example. They can trample people, they can throw people off, yet people ride them on a daily basis. Do you think that they are "stupid" for taking that risk?
"Experts differed on the number of human deaths caused by stingrays ? anywhere from 3 to 17 ? though they agreed that they were extremely rare."
There is a difference between taking risk and taking undue risk. Swimming with stingrays in my opinion is not undue risk. Once again if they were such deadly creatures and people were dying from them left and right or getting severly injured it would not be a booming business. Same with skydiving. I am not saying it makes it safe, I am saying it just means that deaths and injuries are so infrequent it isn't an undue risk.
If you wanted to avoid all risk then you should stay in your house, because crossing the street *coud* be deadly.

I hear that after this whole incident that they are not going to be putting Steve Irwins Suntan lotion on the market, its going to be delayed for a bit and reformulated because it doesnt protect against harmful rays.

Hah

Shark-Ray Alley.... Its in Belize. I wouldn't be surprised if the Caymans had some thing where you can dive with rays also.
-Bal.