Southern Stingray

Description:

Photo take at -45 ft in a Caribbean reef. Big stingray glide in front of us very slow. Their disc, or body, has sharp corners and short spines on their upper surface and are olive brown/green in color in adults, gray in juveniles. The underside of their disk is whitish in color. Their tails have a long barb used for defense. They are observed singly, in pairs, or in migrating schools. Measure up to about 2 m from wingtip to wingtip and can weigh up to136 kg.

Habitat:

Found in tropical and subtropical waters of the Western Atlantic Ocean from New Jersey to Brazil. These stingrays prefer sandy bottoms, seagrass beds, lagoons and reefs, and are often seen near cleaning stations where they are cleaned of parasites by bluehead wrasses and Spanish hogfishes.