I am really sad about this news and am not sure what to say to my kids. I am afraid they will never want to swim in the bay again as there a lot of stingrays here.
PD — You might want to use this opportunity to draw distinctions for your kids. A couple weeks ago my own kids came across the TV story about Tim Treadwell, the documentarian who was eaten alive by grizzly bears in Alaska. This was days before we went camping to Sequoia.
I was able to draw a distinction between the black bears in Sequoia and the grizzly bears in Alaska. I was also able to draw a distinction between the provocative behavior of Treadwell and the respectful behavior we knew to exhibit with bears.
I am happy to report that we did see a back bear, and paid it the proper respect. My kids and the bear were both cool with the experience.
I'm no expert on the ocean, but my understanding is that the ray that felled Erwin was an eight-footer, nothing like the one-footers we have here. Also, Erwin was more — shall we say, intrusive — then you have probably taught your own kids to be.
