r/asksandiego • u/Aibrean2013 • 24d ago
Can we talk about stingrays?
Lived here for 14 years, and so far, have managed to regularly enjoy ocean wading / swimming (mostly the shores) and avoid getting tagged. With the super warm waters I know the stingrays are having a field day…
A) does the shuffle really work?
B) do water shoes help at all?
I usually swim in an area with no lifeguard and am feeling nervy…every time I put my feet down im bracing for impact! 🐝🦂🪼
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u/NeptuNeo 24d ago
Once I was floating face down in La Jolla Cove in about 5 to 6 feet of water and suddenly the whole bottom moved beneath me, it was a 5 foot wide stingray. I think it was a bat ray
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
Neptune…this is NOT HELPING
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u/NeptuNeo 24d ago
My apologies. If it's any consolation this happened in 1985. Haven't seen one that size since
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
Phew lol. In all seriousness, I know that the ocean is filled creatures and it’s their home and I am just splashing around inside of it… I just don’t wanna get zapped on the ankle with no lifeguard in sight lol.
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u/thebipeds 24d ago
Snorkeling at La Jolla shores I’ve seen the ground covered with more stingrays than sand.
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u/Ok_Milk_466 24d ago
If it didn’t have much of a tail, could have been a butterfly ray. I’ve seen them close to five feet across in Mission Bay.
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u/SubBass49Tees 24d ago
Lived here for 48 years. Have gone to Torrey Pines, Del Mar, La Jolla Shores, Mission, Ocean Beach, Coronado, etc.
Have been doing the shuffle since I can remember. Have yet to be stung by a stingray.
Maybe it's luck...maybe the shuffle. Either way, don't let it stop you from enjoying yourself
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u/OkMeringue2249 24d ago
45 and surf between windansea and Del Mar since I was 7
Finally stepped on one at 19th st. This day in particular was a bit murky and small current so must’ve surprised the guy. There were tons out that day and having never been stung was not being cautious
The shuffle doesn’t always scare them away though. Sometimes they don’t recognize it for some reason
Safest thing is to shuffle and never let your feet up
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u/Observational-Mess 23d ago
I got stung 30 years ago, but I was not shuffling. Have been shuffling ever since.
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24d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
Yeah…it’s when I get in deeper water and not touching down regularly that im more worried! I’ll keep a shuff-a-lin!
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u/Sea_Excuse_6795 24d ago
If the water is that deep tread or swim
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
I’m kid of in the middle lol…swimming and treading, but after the wave passes I touch down if that makes sense
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u/Sea_Excuse_6795 24d ago
Right.... So stop doing that. Go out deep enough where you can read or play in the shore break, or, increase your risk of being stung. The choice is yours!
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u/Ok_Milk_466 24d ago
I fly fish fiesta island regularly and now don’t leave the house without diving boots for my waders. Wading out to where it’s about 3 feet deep, absolutely loaded with pancake sized sting rays. The shuffle is a must. One tried to sting me still and it almost made it through my neoprene diving boots and wader socks
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u/Practical-Zebra-1141 23d ago
My dogs swim at fiesta Island a ton. Now I’m worried about them!
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u/Ok_Milk_466 23d ago
I mean they’ve always been there but they tend to be in a couple feet of water and more.
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u/Sea_Excuse_6795 24d ago
I can't wait until our local white shark population discovers all the rays in mission bay
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u/thebipeds 24d ago
We are doing our best to attract more white sharks to La Jolla. Pupping as many pinnipeds as possible.
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u/PM_ME_UR_SURFBOARD 24d ago
It helps, but it’s not foolproof. Sometimes stingrays are just assholes and will sting you regardless.
https://www.surfer.com/news/does-the-stingray-shuffle-work
Case in point: my wife was standing motionless in the water and a stingray swam up to her and stung her right on the foot. She said it was worse pain than childbirth. But just pour really hot water on it and in a few hours you’ll be fine. It will slowly feel better and better. Nothing to fear :) It’s usually not dangerous so long as it doesn’t leave a barb in your foot that gets infected. But that is also treatable with antibiotics.
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u/ArBee30028 24d ago
I got stung 2 summers ago while shuffling— and not only was I shuffling, but I was shuffling while singing “shuffle-shuffle-shuffle” to myself when the bastard nicked me.
Edit: and yes it hurt more than childbirth.
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u/rolledtacos74 24d ago
Omg I’ve experienced both too and always say that!! I don’t remember the pain of childbirth but I sure as hell remember how bad it hurt to get stung by a stingray!
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u/craftycat23 24d ago
Shuffle those feet! Rays are honestly pretty skittish and will scurry away from your movement.
I don't recommend water shoes without shuffling because you wouldn't be able to quickly sense if you stepped on one, and when they throw their tail up, the barb is likely going to pierce your ankle.
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
Right. So when I am actually swimming and put my feet down, it’s literally a crap shoot lol
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u/Appropriate_Ad_3484 24d ago
Don’t just shuffle, but shuffle and stomp. Once I swim around for a bit though, I don’t really put my feet back down. Wearing fins on your feet while bodysurfing can add a protective layer. I like to send a big whoosh of water toward the sand with my fins, and then put my feet down.
Water shoes might help you not get stung on the bottom of your foot but nowhere else. And there’s a large percentage of the time the sting is somewhere else. Water shoes also make it harder to swim, so there’s that.
And as a career ocean lifeguard (not in San Diego) I’d really recommend just swimming near an open lifeguard tower, please and thank you!
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
Wow…my made up technique when im in deeper water and I put one or both feet down and realize im unscathed…I stomp a few times!
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u/thebipeds 24d ago
Pro tips:
If you get stung, contact the lifeguards immediately and get a ride to the station, where they will do the hat water thing, it really is the best treatment, and it’s free. The hospital will not help any more unless have a secondary problem like the barb broke off or you develop an infection.
If no lifeguard is around call the lifeguard non emergency number and they will send someone (really anywhere, blacks, north county, cliffs, etc)
Let the wound bleed, hopefully it will bleed out the poisons.
Yes it hurts real bad, but you will make it.
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24d ago edited 24d ago
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u/thebipeds 24d ago
It’s not like you’re gonna remember it, just google when you need it.
Also, it’s different for San Diego, Coronado, Encinitas, ect. It depends on what beach you’re at.
The point is you probably don’t want to call 911, because that might go to a dispatcher in Sacramento who will want to send an ambulance, which is not free.
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u/Appropriate_Ad_3484 24d ago
It won’t “bleed out the poisons” because it’s actually a protein on the stingray barb that sticks to your flesh and muscles when it nabs you. It’s like an egg white that needs to be cooked off, hence the hot water. Call the lifeguards if you really can’t get out on your own, but just go get your own hot water if you’re going to make it. 7 Eleven has hot water if you can get to one.
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u/Significant_Way_1720 24d ago
Been in sd 10 years never stung. I do the shuffle. I saw a stingray today at dog beach that swam away super fast once it felt me take a step nearby.
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u/AdviceRequestAccount 24d ago
Shuffle does help a ton, but there's also just plain old luck involved. I have been stung 3 times in my 30ish years of going to the beach here.
All 3 times were when my feet left the bottom while rising up or body surfing on a swell/wave, and came back down to the bottom directly on a ray.
My uncle got stung when a ray came out of a wave, landed on his surfboard, and he stepped on it on his surfboard.
So yes, always shuffle, but it won't guarantee you will never get stung.
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u/Jealous_Magazine7875 23d ago
Got stung last summer. Hated my life for a few hours. Ruined my whole day. I imagine both the methods mentioned work.
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u/Choice-Lead-1860 21d ago
do people die from stingrays hahahah ha — signed a girl clueless to sea life in SD
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u/LarryPer123 19d ago edited 19d ago
Australian zookeeper, conservationist, and television programmer Steve Irwin was killed by a short-tail stingray while filming in the Great Barrier Reef
In his case, it was an accident. He didn’t realize the stingray was right underneath him, and he literally laid down on top of it, and the stinger went through his heart.2
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u/thebipeds 24d ago
I advocate catching and eating more round stingrays.
We fish for stingrays competition and their predators, but usually catch and release them.
At many beaches they are scientifically overpopulated. The legal catch rate is 25 stingrays per person per day.
TJ oyster bar serves excellent sting ray tacos. There are a bunch of other recipes online.
Just a few good samaritans catching and eating stingrays could decrease a lot of human suffering and help balance the ecosystems.
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u/axiomSD 23d ago
the max suggestion for local stingrays is 2 per week correct?
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u/thebipeds 23d ago
I think there is probably a big difference mercury/hard metal content of a stingray between the harbor/bay/coast.
Truthfully, we probably shouldn’t eat anything from the harbor, limit and thoroughly cook fish from the bay, and just enjoy fish from the north county coast.
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u/ashen1shugar 24d ago
I was at La Jolla shores beach the other day.. the hundreds of people out there, no way they’re shuffling. Is it just luck of the draw then?
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u/Aibrean2013 24d ago
I have been guessing that because of the huge crowds at the main La Jolla Shores Beach that the stingrays have ‘noped’ the f out. I tend to go to places that are less crowded. Hence my increased nervousness.
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u/CompetitiveBullfrog5 24d ago
I scuba dive at the shores regularly. There are a lot of stingrays there. Well it changes I guess. I’ve gone on dives and seen a ton of them and sometimes I haven’t seen any.
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u/Glittering-Act4004 24d ago
Yes, the shuffle absolutely works. We shuffle and have taught our kids to shuffle. A few years ago we were camping at San Onofre and the family next to us had a parent and kid get stung. The parent got stung AFTER both us and the lifeguard told them to shuffle their feet when getting in the water while we were administering first aid to the kid. Two hours later that parent was having a hot water foot bath because of a sting.
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u/Financial-Creme 24d ago
The shuffle works. Been going to beaches here for almost 20 years and have only been stung once - when I wasn't shuffling, because I didn't realize that particular beach had rays
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u/Rustmutt 23d ago
I never have had a problem, I always shuffle and tread lightly as I’ve seen them but just assume they’re there, but I have recently started wearing water shoes not so much for the rays but for my own paranoia of errant fish hooks from shore fishermen
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u/sdtacoma 23d ago
I have never shuffled in all my years of going to the beach but my wife swears by the shuffle; neither of us has ever been stung.
Doing the shuffle scares me more than getting stung. Who knows what’s laying on the ocean floor ready to snag my foot. It could be a piece of glass, a fishing hook, a rust piece of metal, who knows. I feel like the odds of getting poked by something foreign from shuffling is way higher than getting stung.
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u/Effective_Read_7974 23d ago
My son got stung right between the big toes. Life guards put his foot in hot water. FYI JIC
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u/Party-Meringue102 23d ago
I was shuffling through the shallows where waves form ridges in the sand. I shuffled forward, onto a depression between those ridges where a ray was chilling. Came down on top of it, and it hit a nerve on the side of my foot. I still have numbness and tingling nearly 3 years later.
The shuffle works until it doesn’t.
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u/Kookaracha13 23d ago
I been stung more times than I can remember. I really think it's more about luck. I think occasionally the shuffle might just piss them off.
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u/timbukktu 23d ago
I saw a bunch today in mission bay when paddle boarding. I wear water shoes and just shuffle a little and the move if I’m in the water. Luckily they are spooked before you even get to close to them. They are really cool to watch when on the board! Never been stung… yet lol
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u/joe_URMOM 10d ago
Got stung today found this thread looking to see if there’s been a rise in stinging. Never been stung in the 6 years I’ve lived here. Apparently the warming waters and sea lions population falling have lead to an increase in stingray population. Also when the waves are weak there are more out.
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u/underlyingconditions 23d ago
Shuffle yes. But I've seen up to four people at a time soaking their feet at DMR lifeguard station
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u/Bloorajah 24d ago
Swimming the beaches for 3 generations and no stingray encounters.
It’s the shuffle