Faisal Syafii was feeling lucky after landing a snapper but his day soon took a turn for the worse. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
A Taranaki fisher is warning people to take care around stingrays this summer after being stung in his foot - through his workboot - by the one of their venomous barbs.
Faisal Syafii was surfcasting at Port Taranaki in New Plymouth and had just caught a 4kg snapper, so decided to recast.
"I was still feeling lucky and then one rod was like getting a really great strike, but then I'm a little disappointed when I see it's a stingray."
Syafii wanted to release the ray and pulled it on to rocks.
"When I was undoing the hook I released my hand and the stingray was suddenly, like, bang and the tail came through my safety boot and into my foot and it was like: 'Wow my foot is really struggling with sore and pain'. I was just screaming."
Syafii removed his boot and tried to suck out the venom from his foot before calling his wife.
The wound caused by the stingray. Photo: Supplied / Faisal Syafii
She rushed him to an after-hours clinic which cleaned up the wound and sent him to the Emergency Department at Taranaki Base Hospital to organise an X-ray to make sure no barb remnant remained in the wound.
Stingray barbs contain a complex venom which can cause intense pain at the puncture site.
Their stings are normally not fatal, but effects of the venom can include headaches, nausea and vomiting, fainting, low blood pressure, arrhythmia of the heart, and even seizures.
Syafii said he wasn't in a good way.
"I wait there and it's still really painful like number eight or nine [on the pain scale], really really painful."
He said the X-ray located a barb spur about 12mm long in his foot.
"Doctor says 'wow that's really poisonous' and after surgery she do X-ray again to make sure nothing is left inside."
An X-ray revealed the barb spur. Photo: Supplied / Faisal Syafii
Syafii was discharged and put on a course of antibiotics.
The doctor had a final warning as he left the hospital.
"She said if it is really red around the wound there go straight to hospital because it can be poison or infection and can kill you."
Health NZ director of operations Taranaki Wendy Langlands confirmed a patient presented to Taranaki Base Hospital emergency department with a stingray barb injury.
"In the rare event of treating a patient with a stingray barb, Emergency Department staff will assess for serious injury, explore the wound to remove any remaining barb, then thoroughly clean the wound to reduce infection risk, and sometimes stitch up the wound if appropriate."
A stingray use the barbs in their tails when they feel threatened, an expert says. Photo: smokedsalmon/123RF
Langlands said a tetanus injection and/or antibiotics might also be required.
"Stingrays possess a venom which can cause significant pain, this is treated via immersion in hot/warm water - 40-45 degrees [Celsius] for 90 minutes."
Langlands said the best way for people to protect themselves from a stingray was to avoid them as much as possible in the first place.
"Stingrays will only use the barbs on their tails when they feel threatened or in danger."
Department of Conservation senior science advisor, marine services team, Dr Karen Middlemiss, said stingray species most commonly caught by recreational fishers were eagle, long-tail and short-tail rays.
These species were not protected under the Wildlife Act 1953, she said.
"They have sharp barbs on their tails which should be avoided as they can cause painful injury."
Spine-tailed devil and giant manta rays are protected species in New Zealand.
Middlemiss said all interactions with protected species must be reported to 0800 DOC HOT, by talking to a local DOC ranger, or via the DOC app Protected Species Catch.
It was not illegal to accidentally catch a protected species while fishing.
Syaffii, meanwhile, had his own warning.
"For all fishers, everyone just be careful. Everyone know the story of Steve Irwin and how he died because of a stingray too. I don't know if I was just dumb or unlucky but please be careful."
In 2006, Australian television personality and animal activist Steve Irwin, best known as The Crocodile Hunter, died after being pierced in his chest by a stingray.
Every year, about 1500 to 2000 stingray injuries are reported in the US. It is not known how many stingray injuries are reported in New Zealand
Further information is available on the DOC website.