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03/20/2008: "Just When You Think You've Seen It All ..."

People dying from fish attacks are nothing new. From Steve Irwin's unfortunate encounter with an stingray to the many sharkbite victims, it's sad but seldom surprising. But today's death of a Michigan tourist visiting the Florida Keys is the first time I've heard of someone killed by a flying fish.

Just 10 minutes after they left the dock about 10 a.m. Thursday, the Michigan tourist's life ended with a freak encounter with a 75-pound spotted eagle ray.

The large, flat fish jumped into the air and struck the sisters who were sitting together in front of the console of a 25-foot fishing boat going about 25 mph. The rented boat was headed out Key Colony Beach Channel to the Atlantic Ocean.

Zagorski's sister survived, suffering a bad bruise. She was treated and released from Fishermen's Hospital. But Zagorski wasn't as fortunate.

''The officer on scene said she fell and maybe struck her head, too,'' said Bobby Dube, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. ``There was a lot of blood on the boat.''

Investigators say they think the force of the fish likely caused her to hit her head on a metal rail on the side of the boat.

It's common to catch bat rays in most of the anchorages in SoCal, and they look very similar in size and shape to the eagle ray that caused this accident. But our bat rays are bottom dwellers, and while powerful swimmers, I've never seen one come out of the water.

I guess this is just a reminder that nature is unpredictable.

Replies: 1 Comment

On Friday, March 28th, Ravelling and Tangling said:

8 years ago I was out with a guide on the flats near Key West when he told me he used to do some nightime fishing for Tarpon.

On one occasion they were gently motoring to a new spot with the angler poised on the bows ready to drop a livebait in when a Tarpon jumped straight up about 6 inches in front of his face.

"Waah!" he went, instinctively jettisonning the rod and reel as he flinched.

What made it really memorable for the captain was that he was using a ballon with a cyalume inside it for a float and for the next few hours, as they fished, they saw this light pop-up and move around in the dark. I gather they did not manage to get to it and retrieve the rod.
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I've also heard of someone killed by the extremely bad luck of getting hit in the carotid or jugular by a houndfish which was in a hurry (about 6 feet off the water at the time).
the odds against that hitting a vital spot must be enormous.