Surfer speared in the face by poisonous sting-ray tail in chilling echo of attack that killed Steve Irwin – The Sun
A SURFER is recovering in hospital after being bitten by a poisonous stingray at a beach in Australia.
James Taylor was in the water at when he felt a searing pain on his face – in a chilling echo of the attack that killed Steve Irwin.
He said the creature struck when he dived under the water in a patch of thick seaweed.
"I just felt a massive slash on my cheek and once I came up, I just saw the blood," he told WAtoday.
Steve Irwin died tragically died after a stingray barb pierced his heart while he was making documentary on the ocean’s deadliest creatures on the Gold Coast in 2006.
An 8ft stingray suddenly struck out, possibly thinking Irwin’s shadow was a predatory tiger shark.
After Mr Taylor was attacked, he called a friend who drove him to a nearby hospital, where doctors told him he was lucky to be alive.
Stingrays – attacks rare but can be deadly
The stingray's tail spine, or barb, has serrated edges and a sharp point or barb.
The underside may produce venom, which can be fatal to humans and can remain deadly even after the stingray's death.
Fatal attacks by stingrays on humans are extremely rare.
Worldwide, death by stingray is similarly rare, with only one or two fatal attacks reported each year.
A 42-year-old man died last year after being attacked while swimming in Tasmania.
The largest of all stingrays is the short-tail stingray, Dasyatis brevicaudata.
It is a huge and normally docile fish which spends most of its time buried in sand.
The short-tail can grow up to 14 feet long and tip the scales at more than 750 pounds.
Stingrays are commonly found in the shallow coastal waters of temperate seas.
“I looked down at myself and I had a black wetsuit on, but it was just red (with blood). I had a quick shower and there was just red everywhere," he said.
"If it had been a bit higher it would have hit my eye, and if it had hit my neck that would have been a completely different story."
He is to undergo plastic surgery for his wounds and is urging others to take care in the water.
"There were children down there last night swimming, walking in the shallows.
"You don't know what's hiding in that seaweed. I'd hate for this to happen to somebody else."
Last year, footage showed a beachgoer writhing on the sand in agony after his genitals were jabbed by a stingray's barbed tail.
The unnamed holidaymaker was enjoying a sunny day in the tropical city of Sanya, south China, when the freak accident occurred
Having just taken a dip in the sea, the man reportedly ran back onto the beach crying in pain after the stingray's barbed tail found its way into his swim shorts and hooked onto his genitals.
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