Man injured during stingray attack in North
A 35-year-old man was rushed to Whangarei hospital after a stingray attack in Northland left him with large cuts to his arm.
The attack happened northwest of Whangarei Heads on July 16 according to Northland Coastguard Operations Manager Ray Burge.
‘‘It’s quite a bad cut and the guy was in quite a bit of pain.’’ ‘‘He reported pain of eight out of ten to us, by the time we got there.’’
The man received ‘‘severe lacerations’’ to his arm and had to be treated on the scene before being transported back to a waiting ambulance at Marsden Cove.
A spokesperson for St John Ambulance said they transported a patient with ‘‘minor injuries’’ from Marsden Cove to Whangarei Hospital on Sunday morning.
Burge said the crew of the man’s boat ‘‘did all the right things’’, bandaging the cut and informing Coastguard.
A set of venomous ‘barbs’ at the bottom of a stingray’s tail are capable of piercing human skin to cause deep cuts that can prove fatal.
One such attack claimed the life of much-loved conservationist Steve Irwin in 2006.