SOUTHERN STINGRAYS: BAHAMAS REEF FISH

October 12, 2023 by Rolling Harbour

SOUTHERN STINGRAYS: BAHAMAS REEF FISH (41)

Anyone who has scuba-dived or snorkelled around the bright coral reefs of the Bahamas, or hunted bonefish out on the Abaco Marls will have come across Southern Stingrays Dasyatis americana. And there are certain places (eg Manjack Cay) where you can actually feed them – and not come to any harm…

FEED THEM? AREN’T THESE GUYS LETHALLY DANGEROUS CREATURES?

The name that always comes to mind in connection with stingrays is poor Steve Irwin, the charismatic Australian wildlife expert who was tragically ‘stung’ over his heart as he swam close over a ray while filming underwater. But this was, it would appear, a dreadful combination of circumstances with a terrible outcome.

The ray’s stinger is in fact an erectile venomous barbed spine near the base of the tail and not on the end of it (as one might expect). But these creatures are not out to harm you – though of course when you are in their environment you should accord them the respect that they merit.

If you are walking / wading in the water, avoid the risk of accidentally treading on a ray. Best to shuffle your feet forward in the sand; if there’s a half-concealed ray feeding or resting on the bottom nearby, it will swim away peacefully. I took the photo below while bonefishing on the Marls; the ray directly ahead slowly makes off as the skiff drifts closer. The next one is of a ray with its young – completely aware of us as we glide past to one side, but not especially bothered.

If you are swimming, snorkelling or diving, don’t get too close – especially by swimming directly over a ray (apparently Steve Irwin’s mistake, so that he was struck right in the chest by the stinger when the ray reacted).

Enough of the potential dangers. The southern stingray is a magnificent creature, as Melinda’s wonderful photographs show. She spends half her life underwater and I’m not aware that she has had a problem with a ray.

Like many larger sea creatures, stingrays need help with their personal care – the removal of parasites, dead skin and so forth. And so they make use of the services offered by small fish like gobies, wrasses and shrimps at a CLEANING STATION. Here are 2 photos of rays doing just that. You can see the tiny fish by the reef, going about their work. There’s a mutual benefit in this symbiotic relationship, in which it is understood that the cleaners are unharmed. Indeed, they will often enter the mouths and gills of a fish to clean… including the teeth. So there’s dental hygiene on offer too…

RELATED POSTS

YELLOW STINGRAY

GRACE WITH ATTITUDE

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS

Photo Credits: Melinda Riger / Grand Bahama Scuba, except for the feeding photo (cheers, Samantha Regan), the ‘specimen’ from Tomas Willems (Wiki) and my two noted above

SOUTHERN STINGRAYS: BAHAMAS REEF FISH (41)

January 9, 2018 by Rolling Harbour

SOUTHERN STINGRAYS: BAHAMAS REEF FISH (41)

FEED THEM? AREN’T THESE GUYS LETHALLY DANGEROUS CREATURES?

RELATED POSTS

YELLOW STINGRAY

GRACE WITH ATTITUDE

TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS

Photo Credits: Melinda Riger / Grand Bahama Scuba, except for the feeding photo (cheers, Samantha Regan), the ‘specimen’ from Tomas Willems (Wiki) and my two noted above

GRACE WITH ATTITUDE: SOUTHERN STINGRAYS IN THE BAHAMAS

April 27, 2015 by Rolling Harbour

GRACE WITH ATTITUDE: SOUTHERN STINGRAYS IN THE BAHAMAS

Southern Stingrays are often seen in Abaco waters. In the bay of Rolling Harbour at Delphi, we sometimes watch them admiringly from the balcony or beach as they lazily cruise along the shoreline in the turquoise water. If someone is in the water, they will make a leisurely detour round them – unfrightened in their own element, but unthreatening and disinclined to investigate human intrusion. Diving with them is a wonderful experience (though I have never got very close). Melinda Riger – a scuba expert with great camera skills – takes the most beautiful photos of the stingrays she encounters. Here are a few that I haven’t yet featured. Notice the little striped CLEANING GOBIES going about their business.

Southern Stingrays are often encountered when one is bonefishing in the low waters of the Marls. I took the photos below while we were fishing in a channel between areas of mangrove. As the skiff was poled very slowly forward, I saw the stingray coming straight towards us. I wondered how it would react. Very elegantly, was the answer. It turned effortlessly and unperturbed to one side, then resumed its original course leaving a clump of mangrove between it and the skiff.

RELATED POSTS

SOUTHERN STINGRAYS

RAYS OF SUNSHINE

YELLOW STINGRAYS

Credits: Melinda Riger, Grand Bahama Scuba; RH

RAYS OF SUNSHINE ON THE ABACO MARLS

March 25, 2014 by Rolling Harbour

RAYS OF SUNSHINE ON THE ABACO MARLS

The Marls of Abaco are prime bonefishing grounds, a vast area of labyrinthine mangrove swamps, sandy islets, channels and shallow flats on the west side of the main island. The fish are wily and powerful, the fly hooks are barbless, and each one caught, retained, boated and swiftly released is a prize. There’s plenty of other wildlife to be seen. Heron and egrets, ospreys, belted kingfishers, wading birds and many other bird species make the Marls their home. In the water, there are snappers, jacks, barracuda, and sharks of various kinds and sizes. These latter range from small black tip, lemon and hammerhead sharks to more substantial contenders, with the occasional massive bull shark to add a frisson for those on a suddenly fragile-seeming skiff…

There are also rays. I have posted before about the SOUTHERN STINGRAY and the YELLOW STINGRAY. Out on the Marls I have mainly seen Southerns as they move serenely and unhurriedly through the warm shallow water. A couple of weeks ago, we were out with the rods when we had a completely new Ray experience. I’m not overly given to anthropomorphism and getting too emotional about encounters, but we all found this one quite moving – even our very experienced guide.

Gliding to our right side, a pair of stingrays slowed as they neared the skiff

The adult paused very close to us, allowing the little ray to catch up

Lifting a wing slightly the adult let the juvenile creep under, while keeping a beady eye on us

The large ray was missing the tip of its tail, presumably from some adverse encounter

The creatures examined us carefully for 2 or 3 minutes, before separating

Then they slowly drifted away across the sand…

According to our guide, this gently protective behaviour is not uncommon. They may well have been completely unrelated, the large ray tolerating the smaller one accompanying it through the waters and offering a kindly wing in the presence of danger or suspicious objects like us.

Photo Credits: Mrs RH (I was too entranced at the sharp end, with a bird’s eye view, to get a camera out)

SUBMARINE SUPERMODELS: POUTS & GLAM EYES OF BAHAMAS REEF FISH

December 9, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

SUBMARINE SUPERMODELS

THE POUTS & GLAM EYES OF BAHAMAS REEF FISH

I have been idly filing away some stunning close-up reef denizen images by Melinda Riger. A Monday morning is the perfect time to showcase some pouts, poses and glad eyes from the ‘catfish walk’, starting with my absolute favourite…

A COWFISH** PERFECTS THE POUT

A GREEN MORAY EEL SMILES STRAIGHT TO CAMERA

THE QUEEN ANGELFISH ‘LOVES’ THE LENS

A GROUPER DOES THE ‘OPEN-MOUTH’ GAPE

THIS SCHOOLMASTER SNAPPER MAY NOT HAVE GOT QUITE WHAT IT TAKES

NICE EYES, BUT THE PETITE SAND-DIVER NEEDS TO BE A LITTLE MORE OUTGOING

AS DOES THE SOUTHERN STINGRAY

HOWEVER THE PEACOCK FLOUNDER IS ROCKING THE MAKE-UP BOX

THE OCTOPUS IS MOODY & WON’T GET OUT OF BED FOR LESS THAN 20 MOLLUSCS

AND REGRETTABLY THE POOR CONCH HAS A BAD STAGE FRIGHT

For more octopus information and a discussion of the correct plural (choice of 3) CLICK HERE

For a post about underwater species camouflage CLICK HERE

**Since I posted this earlier today, I have been asked (re photo 1) what the… the… heck a Cowfish looks like, when it’s not puckering up while facing you. The answer is: stunningly glamorous…

Thanks as ever to Melinda Riger of Grand Bahama Scuba for use permission for her fab photos; tip of the dorsal fin to Wiki for the shark eye header pic

SOUTHERN STINGRAYS: KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU

August 15, 2013 by Rolling Harbour

SOUTHERN STINGRAYS: KEEPING AN EYE ON YOU

The SOUTHERN STINGRAY Dasyatis americana is a ‘whiptail stingray’ found in the Western Atlantic Ocean. Their habitat and personal habits – feeding and mating – are similar to those of the YELLOW STINGRAY. They live on the seabed, where they feed on small crustaceans, molluscs and fish. They expose their prey by flapping their ‘wings’ (= pectoral fins) to disturb the sand

You want to avoid treading on one of these if possible. Their tails have a serrated barb covered in venomous mucous, used for self-defence. These spines are not fatal to humans, but if you step on one it may be an experience in extreme pain to tell your grandchildren about.

Luckily they are likely to see you long before you notice them, and to swim away from your approach

IUCN LISTING: ‘DATA DEFICIENT’

Surprisingly, the ‘at risk’ status of the Southern Stingray is not known. However, as with other marine species that humans like to befriend in the wild for the perceived benefit of both parties, there are parts of the Caribbean where stingray swims involve rather more than merely swimming with and enjoying the rays in their own environment. There is organised hand-feeding with cut-up fish, even general fondling and cuddling, that can make these wild creatures seem ‘tame’. There is growing concern that such close dependent interactions with humans is not a good thing, at least for the stingrays.

A diver admiring a ray while keeping a respectful distance

If you watch out for them… they’ll keep an eye out for you

Credits: Melinda Riger of Grand Bahama Scuba; Wiki for thumbs / material; selected online trawlings

My incompetent first ever underwater video at Fowl Cay Marine Preserve, Abaco. I hadn’t snorkelled for X decades, and frankly had some breathing-and-swimming-simultaneously issues, let alone trying to hold a tiny camera steady. Still, here it is (with a proper diver’s video below)

Music credit on my vid to the fairly litigious Joe Satriani – see JS v Coldplay ‘If I could Fly’ / ‘Viva La Vida’ plagiarism case (settled, to no one’s great advantage). Hey, Joe, what you doin’ with that writ in your hand? For anyone the slightest bit interested in the alleged similarities, here is a mash-up reward for reading about stingrays. Or penalty.