Jan 27 2008
Stingray
Stingrays (Dasyatids) are common in tropical coastal waters throughout the world. In the waters off Australia the most common are the Blue-spotted Stingray, and the Smooth Stingray.The Smooth Stingray is a bottom-dwelling species which is recorded from temperate waters of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. It’s aggressive and is easily observed by divers. This species usually has one venomous spine (the sting) halfway along the tail which is capable of inflicting severe or potentially fatal wounds. Sometimes it raises its tail above its back like a scorpion.
The Blue-spotted Stingray occurs throughout the tropical Indo-West Pacific, and is found in Australia from southern Queensland, around the south of the country and north to the central coast of Western Australia. It lives in coastal waters and estuaries from shallow water down to about 170 m. It’s often observed buried in sand or mud with only the eyes exposed.
Stingrays are equipped with a razor-sharp, barbed, or serrated cartilaginous spine that grows from the ray’s whip-like tail. This barb, coated with a toxic venom, has given them their common name. Dasyatids are not aggressive and prefer to swim away when threatened. When they do use their tails, it’s more of a mechanical reaction.
In many cases involving humans, the victims are usually stung in the foot when they accidentally step on a stingray. In the case of Steve Irwin, popular television personality, the sting from a dasyatis, probably a Smooth Stingray, punctured his heart causing causing cardiac arrest.
If you have the misfortune to be stung, get some hot water on the wound as fast as you can. First aid treatment for stingray stings starts with hot water, which eases pain and speed up the breakdown of the venom. Papain, a substance found in papaya or unseasoned powdered meat tenderizer, may break down the protein of the toxins. Pain from a sting will last up to 48 hours but is at its worst in the first 30-60 minutes.
Always keep in mind that these creatures, like others in the waters and seas of Australia, are wild creatures and should always be treated with extreme caution.
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