Stingray attack off SA coast leaves woman with 16cm barb near artery in arm

Australia Broadcast Center

06-05-2025

A volunteer marine researcher whose arm was skewered by a 16-centimetre stingray barb says she could easily have met with the same tragic fate as Steve Irwin, and was shocked by the x-ray of her injury.
Pam Bennett was among a group of four conducting a survey of marine life at Treasure Cove on South Australia's southern Yorke Peninsula, partly in response to the unusual number of fish deaths along other parts of the state's coastline.
The Minlaton woman, who had to undergo surgery to have the barb removed, said she was snorkelling less than 50 metres offshore when she realised she was over the top of a stingray, and "quickly swam out of the way".
"It wasn't long after that that I felt the barb go into my arm," she said.
"I actually didn't see that stingray — he had come from behind, I think. He had actually attacked.
"That's not their normal behaviour."
The barb had to be surgically removed at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
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Supplied: Pam Bennett
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Ms Bennett said her fellow snorkellers laid her on her back and floated her to shore, and that "blood was spurting out quite a bit" from the wound just above her right elbow.
"It was agony [but] at the time it felt like a dog bite, not that I've ever been bitten by a dog, but it was what I imagine it would feel like,"
she said.
"I kind of expected them to take the wetsuit off and see teeth marks."
Ms Bennett was taken to hospital in Yorketown and then flown to Adelaide.
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Supplied: Pam Bennett
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Before being flown to Adelaide, where she had the barb removed, the 68-year-old was taken to Yorketown Hospital.
"I was absolutely astounded by the x-ray. It showed a dagger going in at my elbow and coming out almost under my arm,"
she said.
"It was actually laying alongside the brachial artery but it didn't penetrate the artery.
"I could have been a Steve Irwin.
"In hindsight, I feel like I've won the lottery because I'm amazed it was me and not a young child."
The barb was embedded 16 centimetres into Ms Bennett's arm, and came within a whisker of an artery.
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Supplied: Pam Bennett
)
Among those who had been snorkelling with Ms Bennett was marine biologist and environmentalist Mike Bossley.
"We had to get Pam out of the water, she was bleeding quite heavily, but she's a very brave woman and didn't panic or anything," he told ABC Radio Adelaide.
'Window into the future'
Dr Bossley said he returned to Treasure Cove last week because of the alarming number of animal deaths and unusual incidents along other stretches of South Australia's coast.
Photo shows
The remains of a large puffed up globe fish sit on the sand of a surf beach.
As sharks, rays, and other marine life continue to wash up on South Australian beaches, citizen scientists are urged to record the scale of the lingering marine algal bloom event.
Those deaths have been blamed on a
There have been reports of
"The first thing we noticed was lots of dead animals on the beach," he said.
"
As soon as we got in the water we immediately saw there were quite a number of dead fiddler rays as well, which are kind of like a cross between a ray and a shark, and the water was kind of thick and slimy.
"
In April, an

Yesterday, a
"We've had a marine heatwave for weeks and weeks now, and I'm not sure — I don't think anybody knows yet — what the exact mechanism is between the warm water and the deaths," Dr Bossley said.
"It appears that the bloom of the microalgae … is part of the picture, but exactly how that's affecting the sharks and rays I think is not quite clear yet.
"I've never seen anything like this — it's a wasteland out there. It's scary.
"
It makes me feel like I've had a window into the future of what's going to happen to our oceans with climate change and it's very depressing.
"
Researchers to conduct post-mortem
Primary Industries Minister Clare Scriven said a necropsy would be conducted on the shark that washed up yesterday.
"SARDI [South Australian Research and Development Institute] will analyse the organs of the shark that died yesterday, they'll look at the general condition and take samples," Ms Scriven said.
"The water temperatures are about 2.5 degrees warmer than usual, and of course there's been very calm marine conditions overall.
"What we see with algal blooms usually is that they dissipate after a little while when there's some reasonably strong winds and swells, but because we haven't had that, the algal bloom is continuing to be present and moving around different parts of the coastline."
Ms Scriven rejected any suggestion the desalination plant at Port Stanvac, which has boosted its output, had contributed to the bloom.
"Brine's not associated with greater algal growth," she said.
'Home in time to vote'
Ms Bennett was full of praise for the "amazing" and "brilliant" hospital staff who treated her and removed the barb, which she intends to keep "as a trophy".
"[They] sent me for a CT scan and then took me to theatre and then untangled the barb from my muscle," she said.
She said she had been left with a "bit of bruising and a sore arm" and was discharged from hospital on Saturday.
"They got me home in time to vote," she joked.
A stingray washed up at Treasure Cove on Yorke Peninsula, near where Pam Bennett's arm was pierced.
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Supplied: Pam Bennett
)
Despite her injury, Ms Bennett said her love of stingrays was undiminished.
"Normally they're just shy, placid, beautiful creatures,"
she said.