Comments on: Death on a reef

By: bibliobibuli

bibliobibuli — Sat, 09 Sep 2006 03:06:00 +0000

now that is bizarre!! the kind of thing that if you put it in a novel no-one would believe you

i’m sad about steve irwin’s death. he popularised the less loveable (to some) of nature’s creatures and wildlife needs all the friends it can get … you’re right about him stressing the animals though

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 02:40:00 +0000

Hrugaar – hey, take it and run with it!

Karen, there are so many stupid ways of dying one wonders how anyone survives to a grand old age! I know I owe my life to antibiotics, but I also almost killed myself at eleven when I slipped and fell headfirst off a boulder onto some rocks. Concussed and with a fractured skull, I can’t remember a thing about the rest of that day, even though I picked myself up and tagged along after my friends. At twelve I was hit by a car while riding my bike. At sixteen I almost fell off a mountain. At eighteen I almost drowned while rescuing someone who couldn’t swim. And so it goes on until a few years back when I was bitten by 38 wasps…I really thought I was dead that time.

And yet I’m still here. Maybe there’s a reason – I have yet to write that classic bestseller, that’s what…

By: hrugaar

hrugaar — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 01:12:00 +0000

Hm, flying fish turned suicide pilot, or front line shock troop, with natural weaponry too. Giving me an idea to fit into a story …

Yes, pity about Steve Irwin – one of those stupid, pointless accidents in life. 😮

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 20:59:00 +0000

Well, blow me down.

Hey, do you reckon folk sit around in the Afterlife comparing death stories, trying to one-up each other? Kind of like the scars scene in Jaws?

If they do, you gotta think that guy's in the running to win. *g*

Thanks for the info! It's one for the books, all right.

By: Glenda Larke

Glenda Larke — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 19:36:00 +0000

I don’t actually have the article with me to check, so this is from memory: the flying fish has an elongated upper snout, like a swordfish, although it is tiny. The boat must have been zipping along fast as it was towed – probably in the dark, so the people didn’t actually see what happened. The fish leaped out of the water “flying”, collided with the man in the boat head-on going in the opposite direction. My recollection is that the broken off portion of the fish was like a dart, and it speared his carotid artery. The shock of an impact on the carotid like this can actually stop a person’s heart, quite apart from the bleeding. If he did bleed, it was internally, which is why everyone was puzzled. I think there was some suspicion that the Malaysians might have killed him, so they must have been relieved when the autopsy cleared them. I know about it because it was written up in the Malaysian Nature Journal (because of the involvement of a flying fish!)and the medical examiner asked someone from the society to identify the piece he took out of the man.

Anyone who is interested can search for the article in the 1960’s MNJ – and corrct me if my memory has some of the details wrong!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000

That really is a bizarre death! So what exactly killed him? The impact? The bit of fish migrating to a vital organ? What?

Enquiring minds want to know ... *g*