VICIOUS STINGRAY

Waikato Times, Volume 123, Issue 20691, 29 December 1938, Page 8

VICIOUS STINGRAY

HAMILTON RESIDENT HURT ACCIDENT ON THAMES COAST PREVIOUS CASE RECALLED (Special to Times) THAMES, Thursday While bathing at low water at Thornton's Bay on Monday evening, Mr E. c. Day, of Hamilton, was twice attacked by a stingray, suffering a severe gash on the leg necessitating medical attention. Mr Day, however, has suffered little after-effects of the attack and is able to walk about. Dr. J. B. Liggins, of Thames, who attended Mr Day and who also attended a young woman fatally injured through a similar attack four weeks ago, stated this morning that there was no danger to persons bathing at high water. Both the accidents mentioned had occurred at dead lowwater, when the bathers were swimming in water in which the fisli customarily lay. The young woman* who lost her life was Miss J. M. Laing (18), the verdict at the subsequent inquest being that she died as a result of an attack by a fish believed to be a stingray. Her heart had been stabbed, apparently, by the spine of the fish’s tail. In contradiction to the common belief, expressed in the name ‘'stingray,” the fish does not carry poisonducts in the tail, but complications can arise from wounds inflicted by the spine on the tail, through the action of the protective slime which covers the weapon setting up intense inflammation and sepsis. The spine is four or five inches long in mature rays and has a dangerous cutting edge, capable of inflicting a serious gash. The greatest danger is, therefore, that arising from loss of blood and shock. According to authoritative opinion, unprovoked attacks by the fish upon bathers are very rare, and usually are the result of the fish being frightened by the sudden appearance of the swimmer.