07-05-2025
Aussie swimmer's close brush with death after stingray narrowly misses her artery in rare attack
A volunteer marine researcher has narrowly escaped with her life after an stingray barb missed her artery in a rare attack.
Pam Bennett, 68, was part of a team recently snorkelling 50metres offshore at Treasure Cove on South Australia 's Southern Yorke Peninsula.
Ms Bennett, a local, had been studying the effects of an algae bloom on the water's wildlife and the unusual number of fish found dead along the coastline.
She noticed she was above an eagle ray and even though she 'quickly swam out of the way', a 16cm-long barb pierced her arm.
'I actually didn't see that stingray - he had come from behind, I think. He had actually attacked,' she told the ABC.
'That's not their normal behaviour.'
A second eagle ray attempted to lash out at another member of the group, Dr Mike Bossley, but it missed its target.
Ms Bennett recalled feeling as though she'd been attacked by a dog as her teammates floated her to shore.
'I kind of expected them to take the wetsuit off and see teeth marks,' she said.
The 68-year-old managed to scale a cliff back to the roadside and she was taken to Yorketown Hospital for an x-ray.
Doctors discovered the full barb had been lodged in Ms Bennett's arm, missing her brachial artery.
A severed brachial artery can cause a person to fall unconscious is just 15 seconds and death in 90 seconds.
Both she and Dr Bossley believe the unusually aggressive stingrays attacked them due to the ongoing algae bloom.
In the past two months several sharks, stingrays, octopuses and fish have washed onto South Australian beaches.
It's believed the spike in deaths has been caused by the algae sticking to the marine life and limiting their oxygen intake.
Ms Bennett was later flown to Adelaide to undergo surgery to remove the large barb.
She told Nine News on Tuesday she is recovering well.
'I've got a sore arm, that's all,' she said.
Dr Bossley warned that while the attack was uncharacteristic of stingrays, similar incidents could occur if the algae continues to spread.
'The only thing that will help is if we get a decent storm coming in from the south-west, which will break up the bloom and disperse it,' he said.
