Killer stingrays warning for holidaymakers on Côte d’azur
AUTHORITIES in the Côte d’azur have issued a warning to beware of potentially deadly stingrays swarming off France’s southern coast this summer due to unusually warm waters.
The rays spend most of their life in the open water and it is very unusual to see them close to the shore. But in a warning issued this week, the southern Var region’s state prefect advised bathers off the Mediterranean coast not to approach or touch the purple rays and to inform local authorities if they spot any specimens, which can grow to up to 4.3ft (1.3m) long and 23in (60cm) in width.
The pelagic stingray can inflict a severe, even fatal wound with its tail. With up to “three venomous defensive spines on its tail”, the usually dark purple ray can “charge and sting if it feels in danger,” warned the prefect’s office.
The sting “can provoke serious neurological problems among vulnerable individuals, namely children, pregnant women and the elderly with health (heart) problems,” it warned.
While the venom was generally “not deadly for a healthy adult, it requires emergency hospitalisation, notably to remove the spine,” said the prefect.
Over the past month, scores of pelagic stingrays have been sighted along the southern French coast – on the Côte d’azur, off Corsica, Marseille, Canet-en-roussillon and right up to the Spanish border in Collioure.
“I was swimming around 15 metres from the shore in very clear water. Looking down I saw a massive, dark form with a long tail gliding beneath me and staying very near the sandy bottom,” one bather in Collioure, Sabine Hourdin, told The Daily Telegraph. “It gave me a shock. Others with masks told me to be careful because they sting and said they’d seen lots more.”
According to Var authorities, the stingrays’ presence was linked to the high temperatures, where the sea can reach 82F (28C) near the shore. Experts say they believe the recent heatwave prompted female rays seeking warmer waters to lay their eggs nearer the shore.
“I’ve never received so many calls than over the last three days. The presence of rays near the coastline is abnormal,” said Nicolas Ziani, marine biologist at the Phocean Shark Research Group.
He warned against any “alarmism”, saying that the stingrays were “not an aggressive species” and nobody had been stung since the recent sightings.
But he said the rays should not be approached as the venom could cause paralysis.