Spotting a Ray…it could make your day!

The latest video in our ‘Life below the Water’ series focuses on the beautiful Ray. View the video 

Rays are closely related to sharks with many varieties visiting our shores, including those that hang out at Cabbage Tree Bay, or just occasionally visit.

They have amazing structures known as spiracles that sit just behind their eyes. These allow them to suck up water and flush it through their gills to breathe.

The spiracles also allow them to hunt using electro-receptors that pick up other animals’ muscle contractions. They use a jet of water to flush away the sand, exposing a tasty prawn or worm to grab with their jaws.

Cabbage Tree Bay Aquatic Reserve provides a lovely sheltered habitat for many varieties of Ray. Grab your snorkel (and wetsuit!) and if you’re lucky you could spot one gliding along the sea floor.

Look out for these varieties:

Eastern Fiddler Ray – Visiting in April and May, you can recognise these gorgeous animals by the triangular pattern behind their eyes. Good news – they have no venomous barbs!

Southern Stingray – With diamond-shaped wings, they spend much of their time close to the seafloor. They often bury themselves, with only their large eyes peeking out.

Smooth Stingray – This variety does have a venomous barb, but is generally a placid animal to swim with. Growing to a few metres in width, they’re gentle giants.

Australian Cownose Ray – Heading down from warmer tropical waters, they are a beautiful bronze colour, with a lovely heart shape at the front of their nose.