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| Ray's Deadly Leap |
 When Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin was stung through the heart by a stingray, National Geographic reported the gruesome death as one of three such deaths to occur in Australian waters.
Fatalities this kind are infrequent because the cartilaginous stingray generally avoids human contact unless threatened.
A relative of the stingray, the spotted eagle ray has a venomous barb at the end of its body. According to the the Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, the fish can reach 17 feet in length and weight up to 500 pounds. The passive creature is known to to the swim near the surface of tropical waters.
Judy Zagorski, a 55 year old operator of Beadle Bay Marina and Campground in Michigan, was enjoying a morning cruise in the Florida Keys from the front of an open fisherman vessel when a male eagle ray suddenly leaped from the water. According to the Atlantic Journal Constitution Zagorski's mother, father and sister were on board.
Most likely avoiding an underwater predator, the ray struck Judy directly in the face. The impact immediately killed the 75 pound creature and knocked Zagorski onto the floor of the boat. Jorge Pino of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told CNN that "[her] father had not a second to react."
Despite a call to 911 and a return to shore, the woman was declared dead at a local hospital.
First thought to have been stung by the rays venomous barb, a medical examiner declared Zagorski's death to have resulted from blunt force trauma to the head, breaking her skull in many places. The fish had an estimated wing span of six feet, according to the Huron Daily Tribune.
An FWC spokeswoman told the Huron Daily Tribune that "the chances of the eagle ray and a boat crossing paths are extremely rare."
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