This led the evening news on both local CBS and ABC affiliates, including interviews with workers at the local aquarium who were asked (seriously) if boaters should be “afraid” of repeat occurences. I remain speechless.
stiltsville by sam garza. License: 
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This highlights a fundamental failing of journalism. We report on precisely the *wrong* things, because it is the highly unusual event that is deemed noteworthy (say, a stingray death) while the ordinary (say, 43,000 traffic deaths per year) is obviously far more important but largely ignored because of its ordinariness.
I thought that sort of thing (fish jumping out of water and collides with boaters) had long been a problem with sturgeon. Where’s the novelty? OK, it’s a different sort of fish, and it’s at sea rather than in a river, but this isn’t really as unusual as the media are suggesting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/04/us/04sturgeon.html
John: yeah, incredibly the local news did not cover the latest in the Democratic primary at all. Murder-suicide got covered, though, and somebody hit by a bus.
Mark: incredibly, the local news found someone else who’d been hit by a jumping ray while in a boat two years ago. He got a stinger in the heart but somehow survived. They showed film of his stingray stuffed and mounted on his wall. Guessing this family won’t do the same.
Upon reflection, “Death Ray” sounds a lot more interesting than “Death Sturgeon.” Who needs sharks with frickin’ laser beams when you have a Death Ray?