Stingray attack forces fisherman into race for survival

A charter fisherman was forced to toil through mud and severe pain to reach medical treatment after a stingray lashed his leg, leaving deep wounds.

Mick Goodin, 59 today, struggled to Whakatane Hospital on Tuesday after suffering two gouges in his upper thigh from a stingray barb while netting flounder in the Ohiwa harbour, near Ohope Beach.

"I was dragging the net out at low tide and I felt this thing whack the back of my leg. I knew straight away what it would have been," he told the Weekend Herald.

Mr Goodin, from Whakatane, said the barb plunged 10cm into his muscle, leaving a mess of blood and a fear his body would begin seizing up from contact with the toxic spines.

"I've talked to two or three people since who've had the same thing and they have just blacked out. I just thought, well I've got to keep going."

Knowing his two friends would not be able to carry him, Goodin urged them to pack up his nets and meet him at his car.

He was then forced to wade through 300m of soft mud, bloodied, to get out of the harbour.

The fishermen did not wait for an ambulance, instead making a frenetic 15-minute drive to the hospital.

Goodin put his survival down to the speed which he reached medical care, and the efficiency of Whakatane Hospital staff in giving him antibiotics.

"Without the antibiotic in that short a time I think I would've really faced the consequences.

"I can't stress that enough.

"Had it been in the bone or any part other than the meaty bit of my leg it could've been very, very serious. It was lucky too it wasn't like Steve Irwin and around my heart or head, because with a [10cm] wound you'd be curtains."

He did not see the stingray, which he estimated was large based on the size of the wound. Rays were more common in the shallows of the estuary as the water warmed up in summer.

The brush with danger meant Goodin would not return to his 10-year floundering spot. "I'm hanging my net up, I think. I've dealt with fish most of my life, had the odd run in with toxic fish spines, and scratches from teeth, but this had the potential to be much worse."

He will back fishing today - from the relative safety of his 30ft charter fishing boat The Gambler.