If you’re anything like me, you may have some anxiety about the ocean. It’s hard to fathom the number of creatures and dangers lurking just out of view. Although sharks and jellyfish get all the news hype, stingray stings are becoming an increasingly common injury for beachgoers everywhere.
I never thought too much about stingrays until last year when I saw several people at Sunset Beach in Orange County, California, being treated by lifeguards for stingray stings. Those people were not having a good day!
In this post, I’ll get into what stingrays are and how to keep yourself from becoming another statistic.
What Are Stingrays?
Stingrays are part of a group of sea rays that are related to sharks.
If you’ve ever been to a touch pool at an aquarium, you might have touched a ray of some kind (though definitely not a stingray). They look like graceful birds flying underwater and feel like giant noses because they’re made from cartilage.
Although there are roughly 200 different stingray species in the world, they all look about the same.
Stingrays have flat angular bodies with a long whiplike tail trailing them. The tops of their bodies are often a brownish or spotted color that helps them blend in with the seafloor. Their underbodies are usually white and contain their mouth and gills.
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