Sad about Steve Irwin

I was sitting in the Atlanta airport after a flight cancellation and waiting to get home when I heard that the Croc dude Steve Irwin had been killed after a stingray barb to the heart. I felt tears come to my eyes as he was such a passionate lover of animals and really enthralled so many people. Having such a zest for life is a remarkable thing.

My thoughts then went to the fact that there are lots of dangerous things in this world and the lowly stingray is not high on the priority list. However, having seen the affects of a couple of ray/human interactions, I can say that it isn't a pretty sight. My husband was pierced through his calf by a ray barb which he indicated was painful beyond belief. Then, one of my biologists was pierced through the top of her foot and had to undergo skin grafting because of severe necrosis to the skin. She was out of work for about 4 months. In spite of all this, rays are pretty docile and generally hang out on the bottom eating crabs, clams and other shellfish. They scoot along the bottom and then settle down partially covered by sediment. That's why it's a good idea to be careful when walking in shallow water of the ocean. Slamming a foot into a ray barb would be a very painful thing. I'm just hoping that the rays don't get a lot of bad hype as being deadly. This was a freak accident, no different than having any sharp object pierce the heart. I had hoped for many more years of the Croc guy. Sadly, that won't be happening.