Bat Ray

Notes:

I was headed back from snorkeling around the colorful rocks north of the main Santa Cruz Island docking beach. This colossal batray was resting in the sand very close to shore, and I saw him as I snorkeled back parallel to the beach. The fish beside him in the third picture was a healthy-sized kelpbed fish, which helps understand the relative scale. Please, no comments about the danger of my getting so close to him/her in the video. I had ignorantly assumed that his/her stinger had disappeared with the rest of the tail.