Rays

[Bird Dog]

There are TOO DAMNED MANY OF THEM in the Chesapeake... cool pics though.

Yes, they should all be killed.

Cool pics....water looks a little too clear for the Chesapeake but it could be.

[steal4]

I do not know where that picture was taken but I have seen this before first hand. I was running about five miles off Marco Island sw Florida in about 25 feet of water. I was cruising about 35mph and all of a suddon the water turned brown in front of me and I was scared to death, I didnt know what I was about to hit. I pulled back on it as fast as I could and when we came off plane I looked around and was surrounded by these rays. There was probably 3 solid acers of them and they stayed on the surface for ten min or so and then went deep and never saw them again. This was prob about 6 years ago or so in the summer and have never seen it again. It was a cool thing to see, just goes to show you never know what to expect out there.

[snowranger]

This is the text that came with the pictures I got by email...




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Looking like giant leaves floating in the sea thousands of Golden Rays are seen here gathering off the coast of Mexico . The spectacular scene was captured as the magnificent creatures made one of their biannual mass migrations to more agreeable waters.

Gliding silently beneath the waves they turned vast areas of blue water to gold off the northern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula . Sandra Critelli, an amateur photographer, stumbled across the phenomenon while looking for whale sharks.

She said: 'It was an unreal image, very difficult to describe. The surface of the water was covered by warm and different shades of gold and looked like a bed of autumn leaves gently moved by the wind. 'It's hard to say exactly how many there were, but in the range of a few thousand.

'We were surrounded by them, without seeing the edge of the school, and we could see many under the water surface too. I feel very fortunate I was there in the right place at the right time to experience nature at his best.'

Measuring up to 7 ft (2.1 meters) from wing-tip to wing-tip, Golden Rays are also more prosaically known as Cow Nose Rays.

They have long, pointed pectoral fins that separate into two lobes in front of their high-domed heads and give them a cow-like appearance.

Despite having poisonous stingers, they are known to be shy and non-threatening when in large schools. The population in the Gulf of Mexico migrates, in schools of as many as 10,000, clockwise from western Florida to the Yucatan.






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[RWW]

yes same e-mail...

[realest ed]

wow !!!! did not know that they schooled like this, is this an annual migration? really cool pics

[Fishin-N-Wishin]

Well that too, but I don't follow that to much...

Well me either but for a team who's been a bottom dweller in MLB fo so long its hard not to pay attention.

[000's]

I saw it once off the beach in Hatteras a while back