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Posted By: scribe594 Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 05:50 AM
Ok so with the recent sting ray attacks (Steve Irwin) should one concern him or herself with the rays attacking on a snorkel trip? How safe is it to snorkel with the nurse sharks and sting rays? Has there ever been any attacks on the island?
Posted By: JZB Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 01:46 PM
Snorkeling is safer than walking downtown San Pedro dodging taxis. Just keep your fingers out of their mouths and there won't be a problem.
Posted By: J DOG Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 01:55 PM
JZB is right, you have a better chance of a meteor falling on your head than what happened to Steve Irwin.
Posted By: KC Jayhawk Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 02:18 PM
That said, it's best to avoid the rays with tats and piercings that hang around the corner of the reef with the moray eels.
Posted By: JeanH Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 02:19 PM
Just be careful if you're walking in the water close to shore. Shuffle your feet. The rays are really hard to see. We darn near stepped on one in front of Ramon's, water wasn't very deep.
Posted By: LaraTravelBelize Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 04:47 PM
scribe
you are making yourself NUTS! There's a reason we all love it here, and you will too. I promise smile Dont worry so much, just relax and let life happen around you, its a lot more fun on the island that way. Your excitement is intoxicating, but dont let yourself worry so much. You will find NFL, beer, women, wine, sting rays and all other manner of male entertainment to your liking.

san pedro is wonderful, and fun, and easy to be in.

stop worrying! you'll love it!
Posted By: Dana Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 04:48 PM
I guess no one here read of the Grey Spotted Ray that jumped on the boat off Ft Lauderdale and stung the old guy in the heart....Took several weeks in the Hospital..Jumped right on the boat after him the man wasn't even in the water..
Dana
Posted By: Bobber Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 04:53 PM
Dana, the article I read said the ray jumped in the boat and the old guy grabbed it and tried to get it back over the side. More plausible than the thing attacking him.
Posted By: KC Jayhawk Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 04:56 PM
Stress is bad. Ambergris Caye is good. Stressing about Ambergris Caye is crazy. I'm with Lara on this one--you will have a blast, Scribe!! We were planning our second trip two days into our first one last year. 4 MORE SLEEPS!! laugh laugh
Posted By: JZB Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 05:02 PM
I hardly think that the ray deliberately jumped in the boat to attack the guy. Rays jump out of the water occassionaly to remove pesky parasites and remorays. This guy's boat was in the wrong place at the wrong time. My husband had been driving along in his boat when he was hit on the side of his leg by a flying squid. Just a fluke, I don't think the squid had it in for him.
Posted By: LaraTravelBelize Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 05:32 PM
heeeheee

ya sure about that squid? land sharks DEFINATELY have an agenda....why not a squid?

land squid? the next generation....
Posted By: kris48 Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 07:29 PM
Bobber's version is what was reported here in SW FL.
Posted By: Bobber Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/08/06 07:33 PM
I remember a few years ago down on the gulf side of Florida a report of a nurse shark attack on a tourist in the water. They had a sheriff on the news that said "Stupid bas**** grabbed it by the tail and was trying to haul it up on the beach for his kids to see." The rest of the story is always interesting.
I've done shark-ray alley about 4 times, once when the sharks and rays were so thick you couldn't move, and never had a problem.
Posted By: Axeman Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/09/06 12:15 AM
Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an AMERICAN in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Every American citizen needs to read this!

Personal Experience talking here.... I've had rays draped over my head..hand fed them and NEVER
EVER had ANY issues...Unless you REALLY TRY TO **** THEM OFF...

sorry about the add on there...was in my paste que...just left it for all to read...
Posted By: scribe594 Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/09/06 02:51 AM
thanks for the advice Lara. I myself have no problems with the rays and sharks i like an adventure and i cant wait to relax and live a bohemian island lifestyle for a week but its my friends i need to keep from going nuts they keep thinking they are gonna get eaten alive and that they are gonna miss out on the big game i will let them know what you had to say so they can quit nagging! Thanks!
Posted By: Short Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/09/06 07:21 PM
Dana, we've seen it:
//ambergriscaye.com/message/ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/6/t/004793.html#000000
Posted By: Anonymous Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/10/06 06:22 AM
I don't know that I'd call what happened to Steve Irwin an "attack". He did something very stupid and paid a high price for it. Anyone who behaves remotely sensibly towards wild animals in the sea will have no problems.
Posted By: Axeman Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/10/06 12:07 PM
Pedro is right in one respect...Steve made a mistake..only that..he did'nt see the Ray, was too focused on chaseing the Turtle. Rays are PEACEFUL, GRACEFUL animals..they learn to accept humans into THEIR home. Only react when scared...otherwise they are like big puppy's.

Steve was my hero because he truly wanted all people to know and understand wild life. AND RESPECT THEM.

Go have fun at Hol Chan...you'll have a blast and NEVER forget the fun you have!

AC is a wonderland if you like the water and love people...enjoy it!
Posted By: Catatonic Motivator Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/11/06 03:11 AM
I have, in my posession, a copy of the mutual manifesto of death signed by a two-thirds majority of rays (sting and non-sting). The document defines, in no uncertain terms, the ray family's hatred and murderous intent toward most human types, including backward-swimming and kamakazi flights over boat sterns with the intent to injure and/or kill at any cost.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Posted By: DB Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/11/06 07:53 AM
Catatonic, gotta love it!
Posted By: LaraTravelBelize Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/11/06 02:48 PM
heeehee!

should we start a petition to have the evil intending rays irradicated? what if they learn to...um, well, waddle? glide? out of the water, down the street and into my house to sting me whilst i slumber!

OH NO! I dont even have a dog to bark an alarm at their approach! I can see it now...the crabs already do it...they march across my yard by the scores, but up till now they have been friendly marchers. What if the rays come, and use the crabs as some sort of scouting sentry....

oh horror! then the gulls! the gulls can get in on it too! and bats! i hear their guana is poisonous! they will poop all over my house, covering it from above, the crabs will come through the screen, the rays will waddle in and......

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted By: KC Jayhawk Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/11/06 02:50 PM
Now there's a band: Pedro and the Waddling Rays
eek
Posted By: Axeman Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/12/06 08:45 PM
roflmao....Glad someone has a sense of humor! Atttack of the Rays!!! they really are gentle..and I enjoy their company more than a few humans I know.
Posted By: Catatonic Motivator Re: Nurse Sharks and Sting Rays - 11/13/06 09:42 PM
I'm serious. They're also teaching one another to fly, now that they've discovered they can. Look up while you're shuffling through the surf! There is no safe zone any more.

And I've armed myself with one of those round steel cookie-cutter things so that, when attacked, I can quickly convert the heinous beast into salable rounds of pseudo-scallops. That'll show 'em.
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