A deadly violet stingray has been caught off the coast of Shetland.
A Scottish fishing boat managed to reel in the rare creature, which has a poisonous barb that can prove fatal.
A stingray killed popular 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin as he filmed a documentary in 2006.
The skipper of the boat that netted the stingray, Michael Henderson, revealed the crew's shock at the finding:
"We've never seen anything like it."
"Initially we thought it was a common stingray, which would have been very rare around Shetland, but we checked our book and discovered it was the violet stingray, which is unheard of in these waters.
"It is a long, long way from home and we were wary of it.
"We handled it with great care. It has a very dangerous poisoned barb and we knew what happened to Steve Irwin.”
Yes, stingrays and all other rays are beautiful creatures to watch in the water. They move with a lot of grace. I did the scuba dive down in Stingray City (Grand Cayman Island) and a big one accidentally bashed me in the face. Caught it all on video too (now posted on my blog).
ReplyDelete