or they just want a souvenir stingray barb..
That's what I was wondering... After seeing the news reports on what the barb is like and seeing photos of them during all the coverage of Irwin's death, I found myself kind of wanting one as a conversation piece, they're interesting and pretty cool. I wouldn't want to kill a stingray for one, though, but a lot of other people might, and/or might want to buy one (which would create a demand that could induce other people to "farm" them for sale by capturing and killing stingrays for barbs to sell). The wide publicity from the news reports could have ramped up a lot of demand for them.