Sand Sifters

Florida's ocean waters are to many creatures. Manta rays, stingrays and eagle rays are just to name a few. These beautiful and docile fish have gotten a bad reputation after a ray accidentally speared the famed Crocadile Hunter, Steve Irwin, through the heart. Though their spiny tails can cause injury it is usually due to mishandling or just plain accident such as stepping on its' tail. These graceful creatures are a part Florida's sea life and are subject to pollutants and litter that invade our beaches waters.

ABOUT STINGRAYS:

Stingrays are a member of the Dasyatidae family which also are relatives to , cartilaginous marine fishes,skates and sharks.
Dasyatids are common in tropical coastal waters throughout the world, and there are fresh water species in Asia (Himantura sp.), Africa, and Florida (Dasyatis sabina). Most dasyatids are neither threatened nor endangered.
Dasyatids swim with a "flying" motion, propelled by motion of their large pectoral wings (commonly mistaken as "fins"). Their stinger is a razor-sharp, barbed, or serrated cartilaginous spine which grows from the ray's whip-like tail (like a fingernail), and can grow as long as 37 cm (about 14.6 inches). On the underside of the spine are two grooves containing venom-secreting glandular tissue. The entire spine is covered with a thin layer of skin called the integumentary sheath, in which venom is concentrated. This gives them their common name of stingrays, but the name can also be used to refer to any poisonous ray.

Some adult rays may be no larger than a human palm, while other species, like the short-tail stingray, may have a body of six feet in diameter, and an overall length, including their tail, of fourteen feet.
Stingrays may also be called the whip-tailed rays though this usage is much less common.

Feeding Habits

Stingrays are flat so as to hide on the depths of the sea. They ruffle up the sand and hide beneath it. Since their eyes are on top of their body and their mouths on the bottom, stingrays cannot see their prey. Instead, they use the sense of smell and electro-receptors, similar to those of the shark. They feed primarily on mollusks and crustaceans and occasionally on small fish. Their mouths contain powerful, shell-crushing teeth. Rays settle on the bottom while feeding, sometimes leaving only their eyes and tail visible.

Stinging Mechanism

Dasyatids generally do not attack aggressively or even actively defend themselves. When threatened, their primary reaction is to swim away. However, when they are attacked by predators or stepped on, the barbed stinger in their tail is whipped up. This attack is normally ineffective against their main predator, sharks. Humans are usually stung in the foot region (depending on the size of the stingray); it is also possible, although less likely, to be stung by brushing against the stinger. The stinger often breaks off in the wound, which is non-fatal to the stingray, and will be regrown. Contact with the stinger causes local trauma (from the cut itself), pain and swelling from the venom, and possible later infection from bacteria on parts of the stinger left in the wound. Immediate injuries to humans include, but are not limited to: poisoning, punctures, severed arteries and possibly death. Fatal stings are extremely rare.

Treatment for stings includes application of near-scalding water, which helps ease pain by denaturing the complex venom protein, and antibiotics. Immediate injection of local anesthetic in and around the wound is very helpful, as is the use of adjunct opiates such as intramuscular pethidine. Local anesthetic brings almost instant relief for several hours. Other possible pain remedies include papain (papaya extract, contained in unseasoned powdered meat tenderizer), which may break down the protein of the toxins, although this may be more appropriate for jellyfish and similar stings. Folklore incorrectly holds that one should urinate on the stung area; in actuality, urine and vinegar are not effective treatments. Pain normally lasts up to 48 hours, but is most severe in the first 30–60 minutes and may be accompanied by nausea, fatigue, headaches, fever and chills. All stingray injuries should be medically assessed; the wound needs to be thoroughly cleaned, and surgical exploration is often required to remove any barb fragments remaining in the wound. .

A sign warning to shuffle your feet just in case of stingrays

Reproduction
Mating season occurs in the winter. When a male is courting a female, he will follow her closely, biting at her pectoral disc. During mating, the male will go on top of the female (his belly on her back) and put one of his claspers into her vent.
Most rays are viviparous, bearing live young in "litters" of five to ten. The female holds the embryos in the womb without a placenta. Instead, the embryos absorb nutrients from a yolk sac, and after the sac is depleted the mother provides uterine milk.

Danger To Humans

.Stingrays are hard to see when they're in the dark. The most famous stingray-related injury is the one that resulted in Steve Irwin's death. On September 4, 2006, he was pierced in the chest with a stingray spine while snorkeling in Australia. He was immediately killed from severe loss of blood from the heart to the abdominal cavity, and was dead by the time his team had brought him to a hospital.
These chest-puncturing wounds are not typical, and most injuries that humans get from stingrays are because they step on one by accident. Stingrays are often semi-buried in the sand so they are easy to overlook. It is also possible to be bitten, but this is also a rare type of injury, since the mouth is on the bottom side of the ray. A good way to avoid stepping on a stingray while walking in shallow water is to slide your feet along the ground rather than taking steps. If a stingray feels something moving toward them, it will flee. If stepped on, however, its first reaction will be to sting.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT STINGRAYS:

• Stingrays eat rocks to crush their Food
• Stingrays have 200 of sting in their tail
• Stingrays eat fish , crabs and squid
• Manta rays are the largest of the ray family
• Stingrays have no bones
• Stingrays live under ocean and in coral reefs they also live in mangroves , under sand or in sea weed
• Stingrays live in groups of four or five
• There are four thousand five hundred types of rays

MANTA RAY 411

Description:
The manta ray is closely related to the shark. It has a huge dark grey body, with a short tail. The manta ray in shaped just like the stingray, but it has two giant feelers on the front of its face. Also unlike the stingray, the manta ray does not have a stinging spine on the end of its tail. When a manta ray is at a juvenile age it has multiple white dots covering its back, but as the manta gets older those usually begin to fade. The manta ray has no teeth at all; it survives by sieving its food. The manta ray doesn’t have any gums, but a pair of huge lips that trap its food inside of its mouth.

Life span:
Nobody knows the exact life span of a manta ray. It’s even hard for them to get a guess idea right now. A tagged manta ray has reportedly lived for 10 years, but the age of the manta ray when tagged was unknown.

Average size:
The manta ray, by far none, is the largest ray in the marine world. The average length for a manta ray is 22.5 feet, but there have been reported record of 29.5 feet in length. The manta ray can way to a shocking 3,000 pounds, too.

Habitat:
The manta ray is found in seas, not oceans. They prefer to stay in tropical seas where it’s warm, where they remain in the open waters. Even though the manta ray prefers to stay in open waters where it’s big, they’re also found close to shore. The manta ray is a very common ray to come by, and they’re found worldwide.

Speed:
The manta ray is not your average speed demon, but a graceful swimmer that takes it’s time. They move by waving their fins up and down, kind of like a ghost hovering. The manta ray only swims about 10 mph, but since it’s so big, it seems to be moving a whole lot faster.

Reproduction:
The female manta ray can only give birth to one or two babies, per litter. The manta baby is also known as, a pup. When a manta pup is first born it’s about 45 inches in length, but they grow very fast. Manta pups survive by eating microscopic plankton.

Food:
The manta ray, while in adult hood, will eat plankton, a wide variety of fish, and more crustaceans. The manta uses they two giant feelers on the front of it face to user their food to the mouth.

QUICK FACTS ABOUT MANTA RAYS:

• The Manta Ray's body length is 10-16 ft.
• Its weight is 3,000 lb.
• It lives alone.
• The Manta Ray eats small fish, shrimp, and plankton.
• It lives in every ocean except the Arctic ocean.
• Did you know that a Manta Ray can be as big as a airplane.
• The Manta Ray is a tooth less animal.

SPOTTED EAGLE RAY

Identification
This is probably the easiest ray to identify. Broad angular disc, twice as wide as long, strongly concave posterior with angular tips. Dark brown to black with series of lighter spots/circles on the dorsal surface. Disc white ventrally. Large fleshy subrostral lobe. Dorsal fin near base of whip-like tail followed posterior by a venomous spine(s).

Habitat
Commonly found in shallow inshore waters such as bays, estuaries, and coral reefs but may cross oceanic basins to depths of around 200 feet.

Feeding
Feeds mainly on bivalves but also eats shrimp, crabs, octopus, worms, whelks, and small fishes.

Reproduction
Aplacental viviparity. Up to four young pups per litter.

Size/Age
Wingspan up to 10 feet and up to 500 pounds. Maximum total length (tip of snout to tip end of tail) of 17 feet.

Human Factors
Protected in Florida state waters. Often seen swimming near the water surface, occasionally leaping completely out of the water. Frequently forming large schools during the non-breeding season. Non-aggressive species of little danger to humans with the exception of their defensive venomous barb located near the base of the tail. Avoid handling or exercise extreme caution.