Stingray victim rescued from island

by Michael Fox

Nov 11 2011

A fisherman was flown to Auckland Hospital on Thursday night after being stung by a stingray he was trying to catch.

The incident happened while the man was surfcasting off the northern side of Motutapu Island.

The Westpac Rescue Helicopter was called to the island in the Hauraki Gulf at 8.25pm.

Crewman Dean Harvey said the South African man, thought to be in his mid-30s, was struck on his right ankle in shallow water after spending 30 minutes hauling in a stingray.

“He was sore, but basically he wasn’t serious,” Harvey said.

“I think he felt a bit of a fool really, it just happened so quickly,” he said.

The stingray was thought to be “quite a large one”.

Harvey said he helped the man hop to the helicopter before they flew him to Auckland Hospital to have the wound cleaned.

“You couldn’t see the barb or anything. We just wrapped him up and took him through.”

While stingray attacks are rare, they are described as painful and potentially fatal.

Australian adventurer Steve Irwin was killed in 2006 when a stingray barb pierced his chest while he was snorkelling in Queensland.

And there have been several attacks closer to home.

In February this year, Raewyn Tepania was stung by a stingray in Waikawa Bay at Picton. She described the pain as “like someone stabbing you with a hot knife”.

In January last year a Canadian tourist needed surgery after standing on a stingray near Waitara in Taranaki, while in January 2009, an 11-year-old girl received serious cuts from a stingray while she was swimming at Riversdale Beach in the Wairarapa and was flown to hospital.