STING RAYS ARE HERE TO STAY

Increased reports of painful stings along Southern California‘s beaches over fall and winter reminds us that stingrays don’t follow calendars, they show up when they please, not just in summer. That doesn’t mean you have to be afraid of those creatures, but you do need to be aware of them and you should know how to avoid an unwanted encounter. In case such a confrontation does occur and escalates to conflict, it is also advantageous to know the best way to treat the resulting wounds.

The common stingray is an East Coast ray. Image: Wiki commons/Florin Dumitrescu
The common stingray is an East Coast ray. Image: Wiki commons/Florin Dumitrescu

Put yourself in the slick skin of the common or round stingray (the two types of stingrays which are most prevalent, respectively, at US East and West Coast beaches): you live in shallow coastal waters, preferably with nice sandy seabeds, where you feed on bottom-dwelling crustaceans, mollusks and small fish.

The round stingray is a West Coast local. Image: Wiki commons/Robin Miller
The round stingray is a West Coast local. Image: Wiki commons/Robin Miller

Based on your size, you should be in the middle class of the local food chain, but the stiletto you open-carry near the base of your tail earns you added respect and positions you several links closer to the top. Even so, you still have some neighbors that look at you as lunch. Since those hard core predators are built like torpedoes and you’re shaped more like a pizza, there’s no way you can ever out swim them. While your flattened profile is not designed for speed, it is ideal for hiding.

Stingrays blend in well with the sand. Image: Wiki commons/lennyk410
Stingrays blend in well with the sand. Image: Wiki commons/lennyk410

Combining your shovel shape and camouflage color allows you to easily blend in with the seafloor, or plow right into the sand so that you are totally covered. Submerged in the sand, you are completely concealed from sight and safe from the predators swimming above you.

But then the kooks from the beach come charging in. Those bipedal air-breathers stomp around in the water like they own the place. Through vibrations in the sand you can feel them getting closer and you consider bailing, but decide to stay put instead. Wrong choice. A crushing weight slams down on your back, pinning you to the seabed! With your cover blown and flight no longer an option, you are forced to fight. Reflexively, your tail whips up and instantly plunges its stinger into the attacker. It works! The predator backs off and you make a mad dash to another hiding place, a bit bruised and shaken but still in one piece.

When mostly covered in sand, stingrays get really hard to spot. Image: Wiki commons/James St. John
When mostly covered in sand, stingrays get really hard to spot. Image: Wiki commons/James St. John

Now put yourself in the sorry skin of the poor schmo that just got shived. All thoughts of surfing or a fun day at the beach instantly evaporate as you focus solely on the steadily increasing agony emanating from your foot. You hobble out of the water expecting to see a massive laceration. Instead there’s just a small puncture wound that has no right to hurt so much. The way-out-of-proportion pain is produced by the poisonous, protein-based venom covering the stingray’s barbed stinger. The venom inflicts maximum suffering by causing affected muscle tissue to contract as far as it possibly can, and then keep on contracting. Think of the worst charlie horse you’ve ever felt, amplified 10-fold. Although it doesn’t feel like it at the time, stingray venom is rarely fatal to humans unless there is an allergic reaction or the stinger penetrates a vital organ, as occurred with Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter.

Heat breaks down the proteins in stingray venom so the best way to reduce the pain is to soak the wound in hot water. The hotter the water the more effective it is at neutralizing the toxins, but don’t scald yourself. The idea here is to alleviate the suffering, not just change the source of the pain. In addition, you must make sure that any part of the stinger that broke off in the wound is carefully removed and the injury is thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. Having a doctor take a look is highly recommended.

The best way to try to avoid that trip to the doctor’s office is to do the old fashion “stingray shuffle.” Instead of stomping around when you’re in stingray inhabited waters, slide or shuffle your feet along the bottom. That gives the little devils move time to get out of the way. If you do happen to bump into a stingray that’s still better than stepping on them, and they are more likely to just swim away without stabbing you.