Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Mass Migration of Stingrays

Just received an email from friend, and would like to share with you all the beauty of nature. Its wonderful!!!


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 bi annual 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 Yucat and 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 an d 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 its best' 
Measuring up to 7ft (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 an d give them a cow-like appear an ce. Despite having poisonous stingers, they are known to be shy an d 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 Yucat an .



1 comment:

Chee-Siong said...

What a beautiful nature!

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