How to Avoid Stingray Wounds on Mexican Beaches with the 'Stingray Shuffle' Algis Kemezys - YouTube
go to original March 25, 2016

Here is the basic tip for avoid stingrays during the winter months in Mexico or any other place around the world. The stingray can give you a very nasty cut, or puncture. This might included a very painful barb that might need to be removed surgically.

From Wikipedia:

Stingray injuries are caused by the venomous tail spines or stingers of rays in the order Myliobatiformes, most significantly those belonging to the families Dasyatidae, Urotrygonidae, Urolophidae, and Potamotrygonidae. Stingrays generally do not attack aggressively or even actively defend themselves. When threatened, their primary reaction is to swim away. However, when attacked by predators or stepped on, the stinger in their tail is whipped up. This is normally ineffective against sharks, their main predator.

Depending on the size of the stingray, humans are usually stung in the lower limb region. Stings usually occur when swimmers or divers accidentally step on a stingray, but a human is less likely to be stung by simply brushing against the stinger. Surfers and those who enter waters with large populations of stingrays have learned to slide their feet through the sand rather than taking steps, as the rays detect this and swim away, as will stamping on the bottom as one treads through murky water.

The stinger usually breaks off in the wound. This is not fatal to the stingray as it will be regrown at a rate of about 1.25 to 2 centimetres (0.49 to 0.79 in) per month (though with significant variations depending on the size of the stingray and the exact species).

Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain, swelling, and muscle cramps from the venom, and possible later infection from bacteria or fungi. Immediate injuries to humans include, but are not limited to: poisoning, punctures, severed arteries and veins, and occasionally death.

Fatal stings are very rare, but can happen, famously including Steve Irwin. In this case, the stinger penetrated the thoracic wall, causing massive trauma.

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