A 75-pound stingray killed a Michigan woman Thursday when it flew out of the water and struck her face as she rode a boat in the Florida Keys, officials said.

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PHOTOS: When Animals AttackJudy Kay Zagorski, of Pigeon, Mich., was sitting in a boat going 25 mph when the spotted eagle ray, with a wingspan of 5 to 6 feet, leaped out of the water, said Jorge Pino, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

The 57-year-old woman’s father was driving the boat on the Atlantic Ocean side of Vaca Key, Pino said.

“He had absolutely no warning. It just happened instantaneously,” Pino said.

The impact likely killed the woman, but it was not immediately clear whether she had any puncture wounds from the ray’s barb, Pino said. An autopsy is planned, Pino said.

The stingray died from the impact, officials said.

Spotted eagle rays can weigh 500 pounds and have a wingspan of up to 10 feet. They are known to occasionally jump out of the water but are not aggressive and use the venomous barb at the end of their tail for defense.

The rays are protected in Florida waters and are typically seen swimming on the water’s surface.

“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.”

NEWS STORY

(...checks off something in his Animal Minions Test Notebook…)

Steve Irwin and now this. The rays are fighting back.

What a way to go.

Police should be knocking on daveprime’s door any day now; his avatar’s looking mighty suspicious. 

Update;
Turns out the woman WAS not stung by the String Ray, but she died from hitting her head.

When I was a harbourmaster, I was sitting in my office and had the radio on to the everyday-chatter frequency used by boaters.  Two of the charter fishing boat captains were chatting to each other about something, when suddenly there was lots of screaming and cursing coming from one of the boats over the radio.  It turned out that a 20-foot-wide manta ray had just leaped clear over the boat (and it wasn’t really all that small of a boat) and completely terrorised the fishing party and captain onboard.  That would have made one heck of a splat if it had miscalculated its flight path.

That would be quite the sight to see.
I still rather see a giant octopus attacking a ship.

DJ_Canada - 23 March 2008 05:28 PM

I still rather see a giant octopus attacking a ship.

Ahem. . .purely as a coincidence and as a matter of personal curiousity only, I am now innocently asking you when next you plan to go out in a boat on the ocean. . . 

*gets out his radioactive waste stores and a barrel of mollusc growth hormones*

Since when am I on peoples HIT LISTS o.O

Acci doesn’t have a hit list.  He just seems to like causing mayhem wherever he goes.

DJ_Canada - 23 March 2008 02:25 PM

Update;
Turns out the woman WAS not stung by the String Ray, but she died from hitting her head.

Well…>The family is refusing an autopsy.  The ray supposedly hit her with enough force to knock her to the deck of the boat, where she hit her head…SUPPOSEDLY killing her.  News casts here said the ray weighed about 75 pounds.

Maegan - 24 March 2008 09:22 AM

DJ_Canada - 23 March 2008 02:25 PM

Update;
Turns out the woman WAS not stung by the String Ray, but she died from hitting her head.

Well…>The family is refusing an autopsy.  The ray supposedly hit her with enough force to knock her to the deck of the boat, where she hit her head…SUPPOSEDLY killing her.  News casts here said the ray weighed about 75 pounds.

When a ray that size flies into your head, being stung is the least of your worries. I’m not even sure how it could kill her by stinging her as it would have to flail about after knocking her to the ground and score a lucky hit, and for her to be allergic to its venom as spotted eagle ray stings (such as the beast was) are rarely fatal.

Autopsy would be kind of a waste of time. They usually only do that when the cause of death isn’t blindingly obvious. Like when a ray jumps into yor face.

Although that would be an awesome death certificate: “Cause of Death- Spotted eagle ray jumped out of Atlantic Ocean and struck her on the head. Really, really hard”.

Unless the story about the ray is just a coverup.