Prevent Stingray stings with wet boots or surf shoes

[Guest guest]

Stingray stinging at Shore brings warning to use common sense

By L. Urgo, Inquirer Staff Writer

When a stingray took a swipe at a swimmer off Island Beach State Park last week,

a park official likened it to the ocean's version of a dog bite.

" The ocean is filled with sea life. I think a lot of people have lost the

concept that the ocean is a living room for thousands of marine species, " said

Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine,

N.J., explaining the official's comment. " People aren't the only things out

there. "

Indeed, at this time of year with the beaches packed with swimmers, sometimes

it's hard to remember the deep blue Atlantic is an ocean, not a pool.

Nearly every summer - just about the time the Jaws musical theme creeps into the

idle mind of a sunbather taking a break from a trashy beach read to stare at the

sea - someone spots an ominous fin along the Jersey Shore. Sometimes it's even

a real shark.

Locals usually just yawn. But a sighting can send tourists - and the media -

into a frenzy, despite the fact that there are plenty of sharks (of several

types) swimming out there all the time. Usually they mind their own business,

migrating and feeding on other fish.

So on Wednesday, when officials determined that a possible shark sighting in

Seaside Heights was likely only a school of stingrays, anxious bathers in the

vicinity were relieved.

Then on Thursday, when the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection

reported that a 22-year-old man was taken to a hospital after being stung by a

stingray in the shallows of the inlet on the southern end of the park in

Berkeley Township. Stingrays have serrated tails that can cause painful

lacerations.

Slightly warmer-than-average water might be bringing a greater number of

stingrays into the shallows earlier than usual to feed on baby surf clams, which

wash up with the tides, Schoelkopf said.

Stingray sightings are not unusual since two species - the southern and the

Bluenose - are native to the New Jersey coast and usually congregate there by

the hundreds every August, he said.

Besides the stingrays and sharks, a menagerie of other creatures is out there,

too: whales, dolphins, crabs, clams, and fish so abundant they could fill

millions of aquariums.

Luckily most of the species - including the stingrays - are usually OK with

sharing their space with humans.

" But I wouldn't want to step on one, " said Schoelkopf, who recommends that

swimmers wear wet boots or surf shoes.

And use common sense, he recommends. If you see fins, don't rush out into the

surf.

" You wouldn't run into the woods to pet a bear, " Schoelkopf said.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/126466908.html