Anyone know what happens to a stingray when their barb is gone. Do they grow anew or does the stingray die?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stingray .
Notable that even the Wikipedia stingray article has been attacked.
Under the aggression section.
They grow a new one - in fact, there is always another growing behind the one they may have to "use" or they may shed it some other way.
These people are chopping their tails off. The tails don't grow back. I don't know how well they survive without them, unfortunately people who do this to them leave them to die on the beach so they never have a chance anyway.
My mom once came across a fishman who had cut a ray's tail off and left it to die right next to him and gave him a piece of her mind. He was abashed.
IIRC, a guy at a stingray center in the US said that they trim them like we would trim a fingernail. They regrow, and then get trimmed again.