Just Because It Never Happens Doesn’t Mean That You Shouldn’t Be Scared That It Might

There’s got to be a local angle here somewhere . . . ah — there it is:

New York beachgoers have a better chance of seeing the Loch Ness monster than getting fatally stung by a stingray like the one that killed “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, experts said yesterday.

“The odds of that happening anywhere, let alone in New York, are next to impossible,” said Hans Walters, an animal expert at the New York Aquarium in Coney Island.

Cownose and roughtail stingrays typically scour the ocean floor several miles off the Atlantic coast, but they occasionally swim closer to the shore in search of food, Walters said.

Unlike a 350-pound roughtail at the aquarium, the stingrays most likely to make an appearance in the waters off Coney Island or the Rockaways usually weigh less than 10 pounds, he said.

Nonetheless, the best way to avoid being stung by a stingray’s venomous barbs is by shuffling your feet in the sandy water, which tends to scare off marine life.

“I’ve heard of people bitten by bluefish and pinched by crabs, but I’ve never once heard of anybody stepping on a stingray in New York,” Walters said.

. . .

Despite the unlikely odds of being attacked, however, not all Coney Island beachgoers were ready to jump back in the water.

“Hell, no!” said Queens resident Derrick Morales, 21, who was sunning himself yesterday. “That’s crazy. You don’t know what the hell is out there.”