Eagle ray leaps onto boat, kills Miami woman

[Sarah]

March 20th, 2008

A woman has been killed in Florida by a spotted eagle ray that leapt onto her boat according to a Florida wildlife investigator.

Jorge Pino with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said; "it's a bizarre accident."

"A large ray jumped out of the water and collided with the victim and somehow the barb penetrated some part of her body, which caused her to fall back and hit her head on some portion of the vessel." said Pino.

57 year old Judy Zagorski of Pigeon, Michigan was on a boat traveling 25mph being driven by a relative on the Atlantic side of Vaca Key.

The woman accompanied by her husband and children, was taken to the Mariner Hospital in Tavernier, where she was pronounced dead.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5xCM0HalSMY

Eagle rays can grow to wingspans of 8 feet and have tails with 2 to 6 venomous short barbs.

Reuters images.

[Papa Bear]

They should have put it back! Poor thing I know it had the right-of-way! The FAA needs to control low flying fish! What next?

[Papa Bear]

75lbs for the Ray! Fox news just should it on the boat! Her death was from head trauma! She was sunning and jumped up when the fish landed on her! Might be one of those death from Sun Block deals because she was so slippery?

[bottlefish]

You've made your one sided opinions quite clear in previous posts, to continue to make quips and gibes in new threads, that give details about people who have been fatally injured, just to try an reiterate your mal informed stance is totally out of order.

Please, show some respect for people who have died, and the famillies that have been left behind.

If you want to continue your previous rant, go start a new thread, although I have an idea that you will only be shouting at yourself.

[Papa Bear]

Having faced death a number of times I am "glib" about it, but not about life! My point is and was how wrong the news media gets almost everything! Take a few pounds of lead off and lighten up!

[bottlefish]

Having faced death a number of times I am "glib" about it, but not about life! My point is and was how wrong the news media gets almost everything! Take a few pounds of lead off and lighten up!

Having faced death a number of times? Does that make you some sort of hero?

Feel free to be glib about your own life, but don't use someone elses loss as a platform to re(and re, and re)state your opinion on how you feel about restrictive legislation. For a start, it has no relevance in this story, or the last one you choose the same line with (i.e. the unfortunate Gilbao Quarry fatality), additionally, you are preaching to the converted, everyone else feels the same way, so what's the point?

I've no problem with black humour, but that's not what you are doing. You are (again), hijacking threads, trying to manipulate conversations to make your own political points. At best your continued rants are boring, in this instance I find it distasteful and disrespectful.

This lady left behing a husband and children, possibly parents too. A tragic accident, nobody is saying anything more. Let's just leave it at that, eh, don't turn the unfortunate story into a focus for ridicule.

[Papa Bear]

Is there an exclusivity rule I missed? It called "Chat" for a reason otherwise it is just "your post" and if so get your own web site and you can post all day long! This is an exchange of ideas and a give and take! Like it or not!

No it does not, but until you face your mortality don't force your morality about death down others throats! None of use are going to get out of here alive so why not celibate life and make fun of death? We are all dying, some faster than others! Hers was at 35mph!

[bottlefish]

Morality about death? Yet again, you are completely missing the point Papa, But then, from you, that is to be expected.

As for celebrating life, absolutely, couldn't agree more, we should celebrate every ray, of sunshine at least, that falls on our head!

[Papa Bear]

I tell stories and jokes with bad taste! Why do you think sharks don't eat me?

[acelockco]

Obviously this really sucks that something like this happened, I am sure we all know how difficult the death of a loved one is.

For us, this is also a bad thing, because even if the media has things wrong, the public still believes what they see. Between this and the death of Steve Irwin, we have to hope that the public does not start to view rays they way they view the shark.

The best we can do is to make sure we tell the people we know, what really happened. Hopefully that way they know that these animals are not something that is trying to "get them".