Stingrays

there was one near Narooma once, I went down to secure the Anchor, adn the sky went black. I looked up and chit myself at the size of this thing... I came up that fast, that I was out of the water to my knees nearly... mates were bleep in emselves..
it followed us the whole dive, was great

JohnR tooks us down to Pt Fairy and there were a few that live under the wharf there that were feedign on an old shark carcass that was dumped in 12inch of water.. these were kewl to watch.

yeah i've been fishing inside the bar there at narooma, standing in the water and three of those big ones came cruising past me. they just brushed my stomach as they passed, fair dinkum you just freeze, stunned.

In the tidal Creek that runs inland from Huskisson on the South Coast of NSW there are some biiiiiig mothers of Black Rays.
Standing in the creek and fishing was interesting when these buggers came along the shallows in only about 6" of water. Their eyes were out of the water most of the time.
I was terrified and couldn't move fast enough to get out of their way. They just glided past and could not have cared less about me.
Later that day we went to a local wharf where the fishos clean their catch and they were all around there. The local kids were hand feeding them with the scraps. They were coming right up out of the water and the kids were patting them, no fear no aggro at all, i was truly amazed because as a kid i brought up to fear the stingray when wandering around pumping for nippers in the early morning darkness.
I guess you are never too old to learn eh?

About the only time a ray will hurt you is out of instinct to protect itself. Most accidents result in stings to the feet or ankles. Coming in over the top of one from behind is like standing behind a stalion......really dumb.

Huskison pub... with the fire in the middle.. if its still there....

love the area

Never been to the pub, Bruce, but it sure is a nice part of the world for sure.
Though its getting VERY touristy now, lots of eating places and always full of people.

oh goody, the tourists can have a latte on the footpath forr $20ea

where the hell is this planet heading.. :(

I wanted to edit that comment, but couldn't work out how!

I meant to say something like I hope people don't get the wrong idea about Sting Rays, like a stingray hunt or anything!

The only good thing about electric rays is that they don't have a barb!

Manta's are bigger than stingrays aren't they?

Biggest I have seen was around 7 meters plus across (manta)
But humpback whales are bigger than stonefish, dugongs are bigger than pitbulls, koalas are bigger than scorpions, white tail spiders and many other deadly animals.
Not sure what you are getting at?