LIGHTHOUSE POINT, Fla. (AP) - An 81-year-old man was in critical condition Thursday after a stingray flopped onto his boat and stung him in the chest, leaving a foot-long barb that penetrated his heart similar to the accident that killed "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin.
     
"It was a freak accident," said Lighthouse Point acting fire Chief David Donzella. "It's very odd that the thing jumped out of the water and stung him. We still can't believe it."
     
Fatal stingray attacks like the one that killed Irwin last month at the Great Barrier Reef are rare, marine experts say. Rays reflexively deploy a sharp spine in their tails when frightened, but the venom coating the barb usually causes just a painful sting for humans.
     
James Bertakis of Lighthouse Point was on the water off Florida with his granddaughter and a friend Wednesday when a stingray flopped onto the boat and stung Bertakis. The women steered the boat to shore and called 911.
     
Bertakis was apparently trying to remove the spotted eagle ray from the boat when he was stung, police Cmdr. Mike Oh said. The ray measured about 3 feet across, Oh said.
     
Surgeons were able to remove some of the barb from Bertakis' chest. He also suffered a collapsed lung and underwent surgery late Wednesday and early Thursday.
     
Ellen Pikitch, a professor of marine biology and fisheries at the University of Miami, who has been studying stingrays for decades, said they are generally docile.
     
"Something like this is really, really extraordinarily rare," she said. "Even when they are under duress, they don't usually attack."
     
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)