"Want to get away? Thinking about a place with warm water and soft sand? Sounds nice. But think twice before you wade into that inviting surf. Chances are there are stingrays in the area."

"Every year, these timid, shellfish-eating cousins of the shark inflict excruciating injuries on thousands of swimmers and surfers from the Bahamas to Bahrain to both coasts of the United States."

"One of last year's victims was Eric Stern, a doctor from Washington, D.C., who was giving a surfing lesson to his sister last August near Santa Monica, Calif. He remembers casually hopping off his board into waist-deep water."