A MAN who boasted he had “handled stingrays for years” has fallen over while holding one - spearing himself in the chest in the barb.

The stingray had been caught by Lloyd Mellin, who was fishing at Darwin’s Mindil Beach, around sunset on Friday night.

“I was catching barra and giving them to some locals,” Mr Mellin told the NT News.

He then reeled in a large stingray, which he says was picked up by a drunk man on the beach.

“Old mate picked it up and dropped it,” Mr Mellin said.

“I said ‘be careful’ with the barb... he laughed and said he’d been doing this for years.

“He picked it up again and starts walking sideways, falls on the stingray and had two inches of a six inch barb hanging out of his chest.

“I then called the ambulance as I thought the guy was going to die!”

media_camera Mindil Beach, close to Darwin CBD and popular with locals and tourists

“The barb entered his pectoral muscle, but he’s OK,” Police Duty Superintendent Jo Foley said.

“We believe they were trying to remove the barb before an ambulance crew arrived to help.”

The man was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital but St John Ambulance’s Craig Garraway said the man’s injuries were superficial.

“We took him to hospital just to have him checked out thoroughly,” he said.

“Stingrays are not usually safe to handle.”

media_camera ‘Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin with an alligator at the San Francisco Zoo in San Francisco, California. Irwin died after a stingray barb pierced his heart in 2006 while filming on the Great Barrier Reef. Picture: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

In serious incidents, stingray barbs are usually removed once the person is under medical care where surgeons can assess whether there are extra fragments to be taken out.

Pain normally lasts up to two days, but is most severe in the first 30 to 60 minutes with symptoms including nausea, fatigue, spreading cramps, headaches, fever, and chills.

Fatal stings are rare.

However, world famous Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin died after a stingray barb pierced heart in 2006.