Fishing’s Most Dangerous Animals — The Stingers

Most of us don’t think of sport fishing as a particularly hazardous sport. No doubt statistics would bear out that it’s not. But every sport has its own unique risks, and saltwater fishing is no exception. And as much as the odds weigh against you or me getting seriously injured by something that lives in the sea, you’d better believe it’s possible. In fact, the list of critters worldwide that wait to poke, sting, nip, swallow, infect or otherwise harm you, turns out to be a pretty long and diverse one — probably more so than most of us had ever thought.

To delve into these bad actors of the marine angler’s world, I’ve grouped them into three broad categories, describing the form their particular mischief takes, depending whether they impale, sting or munch you. “The impalers” focused primarily on billfish and needlefish. Photos and words made clear how these fish have seriously injured anglers, sticking their bills through chests, heads and even a nose!

Of course such incidents remains rare, but they do happen — and are among the hazards unique to the sport of fishing. But, as we’ll see in this story, creatures in the sea waiting to sting anglers remain infinitely more plentiful than those that would stab us. Anglers who wade-fish shallow waters are most at risk from creatures that float or swim past, or which lie buried in sand or hidden on rocks. As you’ll see, the sting of some of these may do no more than smart a bit, while others can kill within minutes. But even those in boats don’t necessarily escape getting zapped.