Stingray kills woman on boat
A woman from Michigan was killed Thursday in the Florida Keys by a stingray that flew out of the water and struck her in the face. Judy Kay Zagorski was simply sitting in a boat, driving at 25 mph, when she spotted the stingray that jumped out of the water into her boat. According to a spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the woman’s father was driving the boat on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key.
“He had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously,” the spokesman said.
Spotted eagle rays can weigh up to 500 pounds and have a wingspan of up to 10 feet. Even though they are known to jump out of the water, they won’t attack or use their venomous tail as a defense mechanism.
“Rays jump to escape a predator, give birth and shake off parasites,” said Lynn Gear, supervisor of fishes and reptiles at Theater of the Sea in Islamorada. “They do not attack people.”
photo credit: © Reuters
Filed under: News on March 21st, 2008
I’ve swam with sting rays in Cozumel, Mexico.The only thing that happened to me is when I ran out of squid.One tried to eat my tassel on my swimming trunks.Pulling them down as everyone was laughing at me.(bastards)Definitely a freak accident just like the Steve Irwin accident.Guess I’m fortunate
[…] was simply sitting in a boat, driving at 25 mph, when she spotted the stingray that … credit : […]
Am I the only one seeing a trend here? Stingrays are invading! We must wipe them out from the face (Sub-face?) of the earth! To Arms!
Anyone else detect a gap in logic here?
1. Woman is on boat
2. Stingray jumps into boat
3. ?
4. Woman dies (profit!)
There is no gap in logic… If you are traveling 25 mph and a 500lbs fish jumps out of the water and hits you in the face, that will pretty much kill you. It would be like being hit in the face with a motorcycle that was traveling 25 mph.
Not a fan of the hat.
I read this on aol news. Its sad and awful, but unfortunately sometimes those kinds of terrible freak accidents happen. My heart goes out to the woman’s family. Especially her father who was with her, that must’ve been an awful thing to see.
“Judy Kay Zagorski was simply sitting in a boat, driving at 25 mph, when she spotted the stingray that jumped out of the water into her boat.”………… She “spotted it”? This sentence doesn’t make sense. Perhaps she “spotted it” for about a tenth of a second, as it was coming towards her face. But if she died instantly from the impact, I don’t see how you can say she spotted it.
guys, she died in the hospital from her injuries and not instantly so stop this nonsense arguments
whats with the visor?
I, for one, welcome our new Stingray overlords.
No this article is quite poorly written.. there are no “nonsense arguments” vodoo. It’s really not clear whom actually died… Despite the article title, and the inicial statements it appears it is possible the father was struck. I’m only clear on the data from reading another coverage of this incident.