GREAT BARRIER REEF
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Stingrays
dangerous marine life
Species - Over 35 speciesDescription
Stingrays are a triangular flat shape. With a tapering tail that is armed with one or more spines. Most of them don’t have pelvic or dorsal fins. Stingrays are not usually aggressive.
Habitat
Stingrays live in warm and tropical areas. As the climate gets cooler they move to a deeper place.
Stingrays are not usually aggressive. They rummage on the sea bottom and only attack if they have been stepped on or threatened.
They feed on molluscs, small fish, worms and other little creatures.
Venom
Although stingrays are venomous, the major clinical problem is often related to mechanical trauma from the sting of the barb.
It may produce severe penetrating injuries or and subsequent infection, including tetanus. Envenomation may result in increasing local pain which may spread to involve the entire limb, with swelling and a characteristic bluish white appearance of the wound. Systemic symptoms are rare, but may include nausea and vomiting, muscle cramps, diarrhoea, salivation, sweating, syncope, cardiac arrhythmias and convulsions
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