The death yesterday of a woman in the Keys by being hit by a jumping
ray is not too surprising as the rays often do jump and they can be
huge. A friend of mine was fishing from a 16' boat in Alligator
harbor (SW of Tallahassee) a few years ago when a huge ray jumped and
landed on the boat on top of his son. He had to use an oar to lever
the ray back into the water and his son suffered a broken arm. Maybe
the boat somehow spooks them.
While snorkeling for scallops in St Joseph Bay, I have swam over rays
with wingspan greater than 8'. At first you do not recognize what is
is you are seeing and you think it is just a smooth patch of sand and
it isnt until you take in the shape you realize what it is. Then you
sorta gulp and hope you dont spook it until you are past it.
The "Stingray Shuffle" where you shuffle your feet is the way you are
s'posed to walk when they are around so you scare them away before
stepping on them. A friend of mine has a large scar running across
several fingers where he tried to take a small ray offa his rod and
its barb got him. My brother in law got hit by one while were
scalloping in St Joseph Bay. It got him on his heel. We packed it in
ice and drove him the 30 miles into St Joe to the walk in medical
place.
As kids, we walked all over these bays BAREFOOT with rarely a worry
and never had a problem. We worried most about stepping too hard on a
sea urchin before our feet got toughened enough. After a couple weeks
of summer, we could walk on broken glass and blazing hot asphalt with
impunity and then we didnt worry about sea urchins. Strange that we
never worried about rays then.
My brother in law says he once ate ray to test the oft quoted rumor
that some restaurants were selling cut up ray as scallops. He said it
was a "maybe" cuz althoughj it wasnt too bad it wasnt like scallop
either.
I've seen rays about 1' across so thick at the waters edge of Dog
Island that you just couldnt get in the water.
Getting hit by a jumping ray while boating is sorta like the jumping
Sturgeon on the Suwanee River that have nearly killed several boaters.